Image from www.amazon.com

[During this Easter celebration of the life-death-resurrection of the 2nd Person of the Christian Trinitarian God who dominates the New Testament scriptures, it is only fitting to go back to basics and feature the God of Israel Who dominates the “Old” Testament, i.e., the Hebrew Scriptures, the TNK.

At the culmination of creation week, the Sabbath —which was modeled as a day of cessation from work by the Creator Himself — was not only reiterated later on Sinai as the 4th Commandment in the Decalogue, but also was significantly chosen as the ‘sign of the Covenant’ between Israel and the Creator/Revelator on Sinai Who declared His Name as YHWH. Hence, while the Christians are referred to as the “Sunday People’ and the Moslems the “Friday People”, Jewry are the “Sabbath People”.

Sinaites being among the Gentile “Sabbath People” with Jehovah Witness, Seventh Day Adventists, and Messianics, we feature the Jewish prayer tradition once again. Selections here are from The Jewish Prayer Book and My People’s Prayer Book and The Expanded ArtScroll SIDDUR. Translation of quoted scripture is from Everett Fox’s The Five Books of Moses.

Please bear in mind — we declare the Name of YHWH in this website as a sign of reverence and awe for the God we love and worship; so even if these prayers are from traditional Jewish prayerful expressions which avoid the Tetragrammaton Name, it is important to us that we name the God to Whom these Sabbath prayers are lovingly directed by His chosen. The language has also been modernized from archaic expressions “Thy, Thee, Thou, reignest, etc.”—Admin1.]

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Image from www.kibitzspot.com

KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

Blessed are You, YHWH our God, King of the universe,

who has sanctified us by Your commandments,

and commanded us to kindle the Sabbath lights.

Exodus/Shemoth 31:12-13, 16-17

YHWH said to Moshe:

And you, speak to the Children of Israel, saying:
However: my Sabbaths you are to keep!

For it is a sign

between me and you,

throughout your generations,

to know that I, YHWH, hallow you.

The Children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath,

to make the Sabbath-observance throughout their generations

as a covenant for the ages;

between me and the Children of Israel,

a sign it is, for the ages,

for in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth,

but on the seventh day he ceased and paused-for-breath.

Image from fineartamerica.com

“Come, my friend, to meet the bride;

let us welcome the presence of the Sabbath.”

“Observe” and “Remember the Sabbath day,”

the only God caused us to hear in a single utterance:

the LORD [YHWH] is One,

and His name is One to His renown and His glory and His praise.

Come, let us go to meet the Sabbath,

for it is a well-spring of blessing;

from the beginning from of old it was ordained—

last in production, first in thought.

Come in peace, thou crown of thy husband,

with rejoicing and with cheerfulness,

in the midst of the faithful of the chosen people:

come O bride, come , O bride.

Come my friend to meet the bride;

let us welcome the presence of the Sabbath.

Leader: Bless the LORD [YHWH] who is to be blessed.

ALL: Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted and extolled

be the name of the supreme King of kings,

the Holy One, blessed be He, who is the first and the last,

and beside Him there is no God.

Extol Him that rides upon the heavens by His name YAH,

and rejoice before Him.

His name is exalted above all blessing and praise.

Blessed be His Name,

whose glorious kingdom is for ever and ever.

Let the Name of the Lord [YHWH] be blessed

from this time forth and forevermore.

Leader and All: Blessed is the LORD [YHWH] who is to be blessed for ever and ever.

Blessed are You O LORD [YHWH] our God, King of the universe,

who at Your word brings on the evening twilight,

with wisdom opens the gates of the heavens,

and with understanding changes times and varies the seasons,

and arranges the stars in their watches in the sky,

according to Your will.

You create day and night;

You roll away the light from before the darkness,

and the darkness from before the light;

You make the day to pass and the night to approach, Y

ou divide the day from the night,

the LORD [YHWH] of hosts is Your name;

a God living and enduring continually,

may You reign over us for ever and ever.

Blessed are You, O LORD [YHWH]

who brings on the evening twilight.

With everlasting love You have loved the house of Israel, Your people;

a Law and commandments, statutes and judgments have You taught us.

Therefore. O LORD [YHWH] our God,

when we lie down and when we rise up

we will meditate on Your statutes:

yea, we will rejoice in the words of Your Law and in Your commandments for ever;

for they are our life and the length of our days

and we will meditate on them day and night.

And may You never take away Your love from us.

Blessed are You, O LORD [YHWH] who loves Your people Israel.

Image from rlst2500-fall2014.blogspot.com

BLESSINGS

Blessed are You, YHWH, our God, King of the universe,

Who creates the fruit of the vine.

Blessed are You, YHWH, our God, King of the universe,

Who creates species of nourishment:

the fruit of the tree, the fruit of the ground,

through Whose word everything came to be.

Blessed are You, YHWH our God, King of the universe,

who feeds the entire world in Your goodness—-

with love, kindness, and mercy.

You give food to all people, because Your kindness lasts forever.

May the Merciful God let us inherit

the Shabbat of the World to Come,

which will be a complete rest day forever.

The Way of the Righteous Man

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the Law of YHWH,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper. . . .

For YHWH knows the way of the righteous.

A Woman of Valor

Who can find a capable wife?

Her value is far beyond that of pearls.

Her husband trusts her from his heart,

and she will prove a great asset to him.

She works to bring him good, not harm, all the days of her life. . . .

Clothed with strength and dignity,

she can laugh at the days to come.

When she opens her mouth, she speaks wisely;

on her tongue is loving instruction.

She watches how things go in her house,

not eating the bread of idleness.

Her children arise; they make her happy;

Her husband too, as he praises her:

“Many women have done wonderful things,

but you surpass them all!”

Charm can lie, beauty can vanish,

but a woman who fears YHWH should be praised.

Give her a share in what she produces;

let her works speak her praises at the city gates.

Sons: May YHWH make you like Ephraim and Menashe: (name them)

Daughters: May YHWH make you like Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah: (name them)

HAVDALAH

Blessed be the Lord [YHWH] by day;

blessed be the Lord [YHWH] by night;

Blessed be the Lord [YHWH] when we lie down;

blessed be the Lord [YHWH] when we rise up.

For in Your hand are the souls of the living and the dead, as it is said.

In Your hands is the soul of every living thing,

and the spirit of all human flesh.

Into Your hand I commend my spirit;

You have redeemed me, O YHWH God of truth.

Our God who are in heaven,

assert the unity of Your Name,

and establish Your kingdom continually,

and reign over us for ever and ever.

May our eyes behold, our hearts rejoice,

and our souls be glad in Your true salvation,

when it shall be said unto Zion, Your God reigns.

The Lord [YHWH] reigns;

the Lord [YHWH] has reigned;

the Lord [YHWH] shall reign forever and ever:

for the kingdom is Yours, and to everlasting You will reign in glory;

for we have no king but You.

Blessed are You, O YHWH the King,

who constantly in Your glory will reign over us

and over all Your works forever and ever.

Image from www.jewelsofjudaism.com

Shabbat Shalom!

A Sinaite's Sabbath Liturgy

The Sinaite’s Musical Liturgy – 4th Sabbath of March

March 4, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

[Original Tune: “Praise the Name of Jesus”/Revised Lyrics]

Image from vineofdavid.org

Light one Sabbath candle

as His blazing sun sets,

darkness fills all the spaces,

not in the minds where His True Light dwells,

Let His Tree of Life be your Light.

Light two Sabbath candles,

Brighten up the darkness,

One is good, two is much better,

More minds in harmony reflect more ‘Light’

Let His Tree of Life be our Light.

[Original Tune: “We Gather Together”/Revised Lyrics]

1. We gather together to seek the Lord’s blessing,

with joy in our hearts, we delight in Your Day,

We welcome Your Sabbath, we seek Your loving Presence,

We bless Your Holy Name, Yahuwah our Lord.

2. We break bread together, we bless one another,

We drink to our health and this joy that we share,

We pray for all others, for all the Sabbath-keepers,

Who faithfully observe this blest day of rest.

3. For joy we derive from our loved ones, our family,

For daughters, for sons, and for grandchildren dear,

For blessings no end that Your gracious Hand has given us,

We bless you back, O Lord, Yahuwah, our God!

Isaiah 58:13-14

You must observe the Sabbath

rather than doing anything you please

on my holy day.

You must look forward to the Sabbath

and treat the LORD’s holy day with respect.

You must treat it with respect

by refraining from your normal activities,

and by refraining from your selfish pursuits

and from making business deals.

Then you will find joy

in your relationship to the LORD,

and I will give you great prosperity,

and cause crops to grow on the land

I gave to your ancestor Jacob.”

Know for certain that the LORD has spoken.

“There’s a blessing in saying the NAME”

Image from www.satansrapture.com

[Original Tune: “Are You washed in the blood of the Lamb?”/Revised Lyrics]

1. Have you been to Sinai where the One True God

gave His Name, His ineffable Name,

Which His chosen people dare not say out loud,

out of reverence and awe for His Name.

2. So they called Him ‘Adonai’ and ‘Elohim’,

and devised other titles for Him,

And in time it happened that not one could say

how the Name is pronounced to this day.

CHORUS: Yod Heh Vav Heh, Yod Heh Vav Heh,

Yah forgive, we don’t know how to say—

Yah-weh, Ya-hu-weh,Ye-ho-vah, Ya-hu-wah,

There’s a blessing in saying His Name.

3. So He’s known by many other titles like—-

El Shaddai, Eluheinu, HaShem,

He’s Creator, Master of the universe,

He’s the Rock, He’s Provider, He’s God.

4. How can anyone who’s never heard His Name

ever call on a God they don’t know?

Are they faulted for not knowing to this day,

when they can’t read His Name in THE BOOK?

CHORUS: Ya-hu-wah, Ya-hu-wah,

is it so wrong to call on His Name,

All the world will never know the One True God,

if we don’t say ‘Yahuwah’s His Name!’

Image from www.pinterest.com

On this Sabbath, O YHWH, Lord of the Sabbath,

God of the families represented here,

God of Sinaites everywhere who call on Your Name,

We seek Your blessings — protection, provisions —

for us and our loved ones: (name them)

parents, spouse, siblings, children,

extended kin, dear friends, special people,

staff in our work places.

We remember with fondness our dearly departed,

thanking You for giving us the joy and pleasure

and privilege of having them as part of our lives:

(name them).

We thank You specially, Lord YHWH,

for enabling us to find You,

to know You as much as we are able to,

through Your Creation,

and through Your Revelation on Sinai,

Your TORAH for life.

For the remaining Sabbaths

You will allow us to enjoy during our lifetime on earth,

we thank You !

Blessed be YHWH, Lord and God of Sinaites,

God of Israel, God of the Nations,

Creator of the universe.

Amen.

[Raise your glass of wine and make a toast: “To Life!” “L’chaim!”

Image from www.pinterest.com

Image from www.adathatikvah.org

HAVDALAH

[Original Tune: “Onward Christian Soldiers”/Revised Lyrics]

1. Onward true believers in the One True God,

With God’s Truth before us, leave the false behind,

Once we followed other gods, once we swallowed lies,

That’s all past tense, that’s behind us, disconnect old ties –

Onward, onward, let’s move forward from we were before,

With God’s Truth before us, listen not to lore.

2. Learn the ‘Old’, unlearn the ‘New’,

That’s the thing to do—

Start from the beginning, Genesis anew,

Learn from Him, Creator God, lay aside your fears,

Learn to reason, get some wisdom, open up your ears!

Onward, let’s move further forward from we were before,

With ‘Old’ Truth before us, there’s more truth in store.

3. Exodus, Leviticus, read them with fresh eyes,

Don’t bring with you baggage from your former ties,

Numbers, Deuteronomy, these complete the five,

If that’s all that you can process, that is good for life,

Onward, let your search move onward, leave the past behind,

There’s so much to cover, so much more to find.

4. Let us follow Joshua’s lead, conquer turfs for God,

Weaken the resistance of those who’ve been ‘had’,

Don’t miss opportunities, say a word or two,

Sow the seeds but better if they see His Life in you,

Onward tread on bad soil, dry soil, sow God’s Word of Truth,

Somewhere there is good soil ready for ‘Old’ Truth!

A——–men!

Image from mydearpreciousfriends.blogspot.com

Shabbat

shalom

to Israel,

and to

Gentiles

of the Nations,

and to

Sinaites,

and Sabbath-Keepers,

all worshippers

of YHWH,

the One True God,

wherever and

whoever you are!

A Sinaite's Sabbath Liturgy

A Sinaite’s Liturgy – 3rd Sabbath of March

March 3, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

Blessed are You, YHWH, Creator God,

whose very first words recorded in Scripture were:

“let there be light”,

Whose LIGHT illuminated empty space before there ever was a created sun;

Who designed heavenly luminaries

for visual delight as well as for guidance.

In Your theophanies as recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures,

You manifested as “flames of fire from within a burning bush”

as “a pillar of fire by night”

and as shekinah, a glory cloud by day

to guide your people in their journey toward the Land of Promise.

On erev Shabbat, we light our Sabbath candles

emulating the symbolic tradition of Your chosen people,

Your designated ‘light to the gentiles’

Your Covenant nation,

receivers of Your Torah which is

‘a lamp unto our feet,

and a light unto our path.’

Torah observant Jews and Gentiles

will hopefully reflect Your Light and Your Way,

virtual ‘luminaries’ and lamps that brighten up the pathway leading to You,

in a world in dire need of Your True Light, Your Sinai Revelation!

We thank You, Giver of the Torah,

for Israel’s continuing existence way into our times,

for redirecting our vision to finally see Your Light

in their Hebrew Scriptures,

for illuminating our minds so that by obedience to Your Torah,

we might also become reflectors of Your Light,

just like Israel.

As gentiles drawn to You, Your Torah, and Your Sabbath day.

we kindle these Sabbath lights,

seeking Your blessings upon all fellowships,

among families and friends.

May the joy of knowing You

pervade the atmosphere of all meeting places

which are virtual Sabbath sanctuaries

for Sabbath keepers who unite in every part of Your world,

who dutifully obey Your 4th commandment,

who consciously cease from their daily strivings,

in loving obedience to You, LORD of the Sabbath.

O YHWH,

Creator, Lord, and Master,

There is no God but You.

We don’t see you,

we don’t hear your voice,

we don’t feel your Presence,

but we acknowledge Your Existence,

for your CREATION is a magnificent testimony to an awesome Designer.

Had we never rediscovered Your Revelation on Sinai,

through which we see You, hear Your voice, feel Your Presence,

we would still be worshipping other gods of men’s creation,

feeling unnecessary guilt and helplessness in ‘original sin’,

relying on another proclaimed Savior’s perfect obedience to substitute for ours,

proclaiming a name other than Yours, O YHWH,

living by grace and not by Your Torah,

We thank You,

O YHWH,

God of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov,

God of Israel, God of Sinaites,

for Your true Sabbath day,

which Israel was commanded to remember and observe,

which we have learned from your Torah

to remember and to observe.

Image from www.pinterest.com

[Music from the Seventh Day Adventist Hymnody, Revised Lyrics]

Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, honor the day,

Remember the LORD of the Sabbath wholly, this is His Day;

We’re blest to learn all the truths He has to say,

Keeping His Sabbath holy, and walk His Way.

The people in bondage He liberated — from the Pharaoh’s hand,

They labored and toiled everyday in slavery, while in Egypt’s land,

How long they waited to hear their God’s command,

‘Passover is your freedom to the Promised Land’.

With manna from heaven and water pouring — from out of the Rock,

such daily provisions through desert wandering, they had no lack,

They learned to cease and desist enough to rest,

from their daily strivings, they passed the test.

Creator of all that exist, we see You — in this world You made,

In six days You spoke “let there be” existence — all foundations laid,

And on the seventh, we still hear what You said,

“Keep the Sabbath holy” — in Rest, You led.

Keeping the Sabbath holy, in You we rest!

———————

PSALM 67

May YHWH favor us and bless us,

May He illuminate His countenance with us. Selah.

To make known Your way on earth,

among all nations Your salvation.

The peoples will acknowledge You, O YHWH;

the peoples will acknowledge You — all of them.

Regimes will be glad and sing for joy,

because You will judge the people fairly

and guide them with fairness the regimes on earth. Selah.

The peoples will acknowledge You, O YHWH;

the peoples will acknowledge You– all of them.

The earth will then have yielded its produce;

May YHWH, our God, bless us.

May YHWH bless us,

and may all the ends of the earth fear Him.

Image from www.essex1.com

For countless joys that have blessed the days of our lives—

family, friends, good fortune, and more,

even those disguised as trials and failures—

we raise our wine glasses filled with the fruit of the vine,

a drink for health, a drink for joy, a drink to LIFE, L’CHAIM!

For nourishment of body and refreshment of soul,

all these come from Your providential care;

as we partake of this bread we share,

we remember Your miracle manna and water from the Rock,

that nourished Your people for 40 years in the wilderness.

You are the Creator Who filled nature with so much variety of sustenance.

Blessed are You, Creator God, for blessing us with our daily bread.

Image from www.decalsforthewall.com

O YHWH, God of our families,

we ask You to remember

our loved ones;

grant them peace, mercy, and grace,

and continued protection

throughout their life on this earth.

May they live according to Your Torah so that their names will be added to your Book of Life:

Parents; Siblings

Spouse; Sons; Daughters; Grandchildren

Extended family: Children’s Spouses

Beloved friends.

Sinaite’s Sabbath Table

Image from www.hebroots.com

HAVDALAH

Adonai Elohim YHWH,

LORD of the Sabbath,

How truly privileged we are to spend this day

basking in Your presumed Presence among us,

delighting in the joy of knowing You,

and enjoying our fellowship with one another.

We have partaken of Your goodness, kindness, and benevolence

in granting us by your Divine Providence,

life, health, family, opportunity,

and specially Your blueprint for living,

Your Torah, our Tree of Life.

We have entered into Your sanctuary in time,

truly a fitting memorial to You,

the God of Creation, the Lord of the Sabbath.

As we bid farewell to Your Queen of days,

We look forward to next Friday’s sundown,

when we welcome on erev another cherished time with You.

May You grant us many more Sabbaths during our sojourning on earth!

And when we celebrate our final Sabbath on this earth,

may we be granted rest from our earthly strivings,

having chosen You as our God,

having obeyed your command to live according to Your Torah;

May our names be written in Your Book of Life,

that we may reap the blessings from having heard and heeded

Your Words to “choose life!”

Amen.

Shabbat Shalom!

WORSHIP AIDS

Where God is Found

March 1, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted in 2013. This prayer is featured in the collection A Modern Treasury of Jewish Thoughts: An Inspiring Collection of Writings on Jewish Deed, Doctrine, and Destiny. This is one of four books donated to our Sinaite 6000 library resources by Dr. “T”, collector of rare books which he buys from estate sales in the USA. The photograph is from the collections that get forwarded so much that nobody knows who started it all . . . whoever recognizes this as his or hers, kudos to you for a great photograph, we would like to give you credit!–Admin1.]


God, where shall I find Thee,

Whose glory fills the universe?

Behold I find Thee

Wherever the mind is free to follow its own bent,

Wherever the words come out from the depth of truth,

Wherever tireless striving stretches

its arms toward perfection,

Wherever men struggle for freedom and right,

Wherever the scientist toils

to unbare the secrets of nature,

Wherever the poet strings pearls of beauty in lyric lines,

Wherever glorious deeds are done.

Reconstructionist Prayer Book

DAILY POSTS

Oy Searchers, need help? – March 2018

March 1, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[Welcome March! Once in a while, a search term or phrase lands on our “Site Stats” page, so this post is intended to direct our website visitors to particular article(s) that address/answer their specific query/interest/topic. We have over a thousand posts, check them out by clicking Site Map above the scroll. —Admin1]

———————-

From Brainy Quotes

03/31/18 – Well hell! Pardon the expression but it’s apropos for this update.

For a very short while there, we thought that the Vicar of Christ – Pope Francis – finally awakened to the same truth that Sinai 6000 has been ‘preaching’ in our website: that hell and its ringleader the Devil, AKA Satan/Lucifer — do not exist except in the New Testament. Yes indeed, they’re alive and well in the Gospels, actually interacting and persecuting God/Man Jesus through their clueless human-cohorts (Roman gentiles and Jewish religious leaders), as well as in the Epistles of the apostle Paul, one of which even goes into detail of the hierarchy of devils/demons/evil spirits and their specific assignments on planet earth. Whaaatttt???

Check out these newsbits for this shortlived papal declaration:

Vatican: Pope did not say there is no hell – BBC News

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43596919

Did Pope Francis say there is no hell? Not quite, the … – USA Today

https://www.usatoday.com/story/…pope-francis-say-there-no-hell-not…/470442002/

Pope Francis: ‘There Is No Hell’ – CNS News

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/pope-francis-there-no-hell

Vatican scrambles after pope appears to deny existence of hell | World …

https://www.theguardian.com/…/vatican-scrambles-to-clarify-popes-denial-that-hell-ex…

Pope Francis reportedly denies the existence of hell. Vatican panics …

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/30/…/pope-francis-hell-vatican-interview-scalfari-italian

Did Pope Francis Abolish Hell? – NYMag

nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/did-pope-francis-abolish-hell.html

Did Pope Francis Really Say There Is No Hell? – The Cut

https://www.thecut.com/2018/03/did-pope-francis-really-say-there-is-no-hell.html

Pope Francis did not tell journalist “there is no hell,” Vatican says …

https://www.cbsnews.com/…/pope-francis-did-not-tell-journalist-there-is-no-hell-vatic…

Apparently Pope Francis Said There Is No Hell, And People Are …

https://hellogiggles.com › News

Well hell (again), should anybody be “freaking out” from this biblical TRUTH? Hell NO, everybody who’s been afraid of the devil who’s supposedly “in the details” should feel LIBERATED from mental and spiritual bondage to this LIE that a creature like him even exists!

Now, if the Devil did exist, he would be the source of this lie that he exists, but alas, to him is attributed a host of wrong and mistaken practices (exorcism, devil worship, blame-game “the devil made me do it” from wrong interpretation of Genesis 3, and the whole occultic culture, etc. etc.).

Here is our series of articles on this topic, we should not flatter ourselves but we think Pope Francis should read this and reiterate the statement attributed to him!

And here’s our take on ‘idolatry’ of the Pope:

I-Pope-latry . . . . is YHWH pleased?

03/26/18 – Hmmmm, there are hardly any more search terms landing on this website. That’s either good or not good: good in that web visitors are able to find articles that address their query/topic . . . OR. . . not good in that there are no fewer web visitors landing on this website. It is heartening though, that the “Visitor Traffic” map continue to show ‘drop ins’ from all over the world, most clicking more than one post. So perhaps, pretty soon, this particular AID-post will no longer be necessary. We shall see!

03/19/18 “bible women ” –

Revisit: The hand that rocks the cradle . . .

03/18/18 “scorpion/frog image” –

i1.wp.com/sinai6000.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/9312871863_b890465e5d_z.jpg

And here’s the link to the article:

03/16/18 “glittering shabbat shalom” – A visitor liked one of the images we used in our Sabbath liturgy, check it out:

Glittering Shabbat shalom

03/15/18 – “great isaiah scroll high resolution” –

DDS (Dead Sea Scrolls) in English ONLINE? Thank Israel Museum and Google!

03/15/18 – “jewish sacrifice”

03/15/18 – “the judas kiss” –

http://i0.wp.com/sinai6000.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Kiss_of_Judas_by_DjoleProlece.jpg

03/02/18 – “mother of moses” –

A Sinaite's Sabbath Liturgy

A Sinaite’s Musical Liturgy – 2nd Sabbath of March

March 1, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[A ‘musical Sabbath’ — as we have often explained, our hymn background comes from our former Christian worship tradition; we have committed to memory music and lyrics. However, our beliefs are no longer in sync with the lyrics so we have taken the liberty of revising them, but still adapting their music. For those familiar with the original Christian lyrics, the rewrites might sound awkward, even forced, but it’s always a matter of getting used to something different, if not a variation of the familiar. For the hymns that were compatible with Torah, we left the lyrics as originally written. If you don’t know the music, just recite the lyrics.–Admin1.]

KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

Be Thou my Vision

[Original Lyrics]

1. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy Presence my Light.

2. Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;

I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord;

Thou my great Father and I Thy true child;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

3. Be Thou my battle shield, sword for the fight;

Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight;

Thou my soul’s shelter, Thou my high tower,

Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

4. Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise;

Thou mine inheritance, now and always;

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

5. High King of Heaven, my victory won,

May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

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Give to our God Immortal Praise

[Original lyrics/stanzas 1-2]

1. Give to our God immortal praise

mercy and truth are all His ways,

wonders of grace to Him belong,

repeat His mercies with your song.

2. Give to the Lord of lords renown,

the King of kings with glory crown

His mercies ever shall endure,

When lords and kings are known no more.

[Revised lyrics/stanzas 3-8]

3. He separated the earth from the sky,

He fixed the starry lights on high;

bird, beast and fish and all inhabitants on earth,

know their Creator from their birth.

4. He fills the sun with life-nurturing light,

He bids the moon — “adorn the night,”

Visual wonders in the galaxies above,

Signs of our great Creator’s love.

5. Israel freed from the ‘bad’ Pharaoh’s hand,

walked through the sea and desert land,

Manna they ate, and drank their water from a rock,

Quail for their meat, they had no lack.

6. Land He had promised to Patriarchs before,

Abraham, Isaac, and one more,

Jacob whose ‘name’ was later changed to Isra-EL,

‘Name’ on his sons and 12 tribes fell.

7. YAH saw the Gentiles oblivious to sin,

needing His Torah’s work within,

chose He a people who would lead them to The WAY,

TORAH for Gentiles, to this day.

8. If all would hear, heed His True Words for LIFE,

Live His TORAH, the Tree of Life

Make known His NAME, and teach life-giving truths to all,

Then not one soul need ever fall.

BLESSINGS

[ “In His Time” – Revised Lyrics]

Image from www.judaicawebstore.com

Bless this bread, bless this wine,

Bless our fellowship today

it’s Your Time,

Sabbath keepers all are we,

Torah life for all to see,

Oh how truly blessed to be,

In Your Time.

Bless the men, bless the wives,

Bless our children,

they’re Your gifts to our lives,

Lord we bless You everyday,

Lord of Sabbath, that we may

be so full of joy today,

In Your Time.

How can we not meet this day,

It’s Your Time.

[Take time to name them:

family members–

parents,

husbands, wives,

sons, daughters,

in-laws,

grandchildren,

special people:

friends,

staff/co-workers,

others.]

SABBATH MEAL

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Preparation for TORAH STUDY

[Original tune: “Joyful, Joyful we adore thee” – revised lyrics]

1. God has spoken by His Prophets,

spoken His unchanging Word,

Each from age to age proclaiming

God is One, He’s Only One!

He’s the Alpha, He’s the Omega,

There is no other God but He,

He is present, past and future,

He alone is First and Last.

2. First there’s Moses, then there’s Samuel,

and the major prophets three,

Jeremiah and Isaiah, Ezekiel

who all could ‘see’!

Minor prophets– no less important—

Amos, Hosea, Nahum and . . .

Micah, Jonah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zacari-ah!

3. Malachi and Obadiah,

Joel, Habakkuk, there’s more—

Others who were not included

in TNK’s great hall of fame.

What’s important is God’s message,

Who they were, God knows their names,

Praise Yahuwah for His prophets,

Those whose words we hear today.

Image from certainsoundministry.com

HAVDALAH

Aaronic Blessing

The Lord bless you and keep you,

The Lord lift His countenance upon you,

And give you peace, and give you peace,

The Lord make His face to shine upon you,

And be gracious unto you, be gracious,

The Lord be gracious, gracious unto you.

Amen, amen, amen,

ah——–men, amen,

ah——–men, amen.

OPINION

IN HIS NAME – Whose ‘Word’ is the Bible? – 2

February 22, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

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{First posted in 2012; ever relevant to both long-time bible-students and those about to venture into reading the book that is purported to be “the very words of God”. —Admin1]

————–

First let’s get one thing straight: when we say “bible,” what exactly do we mean? Casual use of the word refers to some sort of a manual, as in “a golfer’s bible.” The word however is almost always understood to mean the Bible of Christianity, so let’s look at that Bible first.

The Christian Bible contains two parts: the “Old” Testament [OT] and the “New” Testament [NT]. The number of books in the NT canon is 27 but the number of books in the OT canon vary, 39 as decided on by the Protestant Reformers, while the Catholic OT canon includes additional books called alternatively—

Deuterocanonical (the second canon), Apocrypha (questionable authenticity), Pseudepigrapha (false writings).

Image from www.haaretz.com

The obvious questions that should immediately come to mind are:

Why is Christianity messing with the Hebrew Scriptures that were not originally theirs but Israel’s?
It is bad enough that they chose to label these Sacred Scriptures as “Old”;
worse, they changed the order of the books into something more systematic to their Greek western way of thinking;
and further, the Catholic Bible accommodates books that the Jews themselves chose not to include in their canon for good reason; as if there is not enough to read in the “Old” testament, they have to burden their flock with additional books that the Jews themselves consider as not inspired by God;
finally, not connected with the canon is another culprit — the translating process, where specific verses in OT were tampered with, and words actually changed to fit NT doctrines.

In the various discourses between Sinaites and Christians posted on this website, the arguments of each side are based on the Bibles each use, as well as the translations. Because of that, the discussants never see eye to eye and most likely never will. Sinaites debate from the vantage point of having “been there done that.” Having studied the New Testament for decades and taught those Scriptures, we know what we have left behind and why. Christians use the very same arguments Sinaites used to propound so there is nothing more that could be said to convince us.

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Here is yet another book that provides some explanation on why and how diverse beliefs could come out of what is claimed as “the Word of God.” It is a short history of the “Scriptures” entitled: Whose Bible Is It? [paperback, published by Penguin Books]. The author, Jaroslav Pelikan, is “Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University” and has written many books including: The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Jesus Through the Centuries, and Mary Through the Centuries.

His dedication page says this: “To all my honorary Christian Alma Maters—Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox—and to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which on 16 May 1991/3 Sivan 5751 made me an honorary Doctor of Laws.”

The Introduction’s title: “The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible?”

Excerpt:

In a variation on all those jokes about the rabbi, the priest, and the minister walking together into a bar, three women take advantage of the lunch hour in their downtown office to visit the bookstore across the street. One of them is Jewish, the other two are Christian—one Roman Catholic and the other Protestant. Because it is the season of Passover and Easter (closely related holidays that are nevertheless observed on separate dates), each of them wants to buy a Bible for her daughter.

And yet each of the three needs to buy a different Bible. Therefore, a knowledgeable clerk should ask each of them, “Which Bible do you want?” For not only must any buyer or reader of whatever religious affiliation find the many English translations of the Bible bewildering (King James Version, Revised Standard Version, Good News Version, Jewish Publication Society Version, New English Bible, Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, etc.), but the buyer has the right to expect “the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.”

Yet the table of contents—technically called canon, meaning “rule”—-is fundamentally different in the different Bibles. The difference between the Jewish Bible and all the Christian Bibles is the greatest: there is no New Testament, and the Jewish buyer ought to be able to demand “nothing but the Bible,” especially if on her last business trip she examined the Gideon Bible in her hotel room, which includes the New Testament. But the Protestant Bible is also very different from the Roman Catholic Bible: it has no Apocrypha, so the Roman Catholic customer may well ask, “Is this the whole Bible?” It is sometimes said that these differences are “discernible [only to] ecclesiastical scholars,” but five or ten minutes of comparison shopping ought to be enough for anyone to see the contrasts.

Two terms that are often used in connection with the Bible, one from law and one from medicine, will illustrate the importance of “the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible” for anyone who takes the Bible as authoritative: testament and prescription. We are so accustomed to tossing around the terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament” that we may forget their root meaning, which comes out in the legal title “last will and testament.” Such a “will and testament” is a contract between the living and the dead, and both the testator and heirs are entitled to have the confidence that this document authoritatively represents “the whole testament and nothing but the testament” of the one who has made it and dictated its terms. Similarly, when a physician writes a prescription, it is legitimate for both the doctor and the patient to demand that the pharmacist honor the “authorial intent” in the document and provide “the prescription and nothing but the prescription.” Both the testament and the prescription can be matters of life and death, and so can the Bible, which is why we speak of “salvation,” which means health, and of “what the Word of God prescribes.”

In a sense, Whose Bible Is It? may be said to use the “history of the Scriptures through the ages” to tell how all those various Bibles are the same, but also how and why each of them is different—not only initially in what it contains but also in how it has been read and understood, and to explain why that is still important.

The history of Jewish-Christian relations, and then the history of the divisions within Christendom, is at one level the history of biblical interpretation. The parties have faced each other across a sacred page that they held in common but that only served to emphasize their separation. In every Bible, whether Jewish or Christian, God says to Moses:

“I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself: I will put My words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him; and if anybody fails to heed the words he speaks in My name, I myself will call him to account.”

As quoted in the New Testament, is this a prophecy of the decisive transfer of authority from Moses to Jesus? And in every Christian Bible, Jesus declares:

“And I say to you: you are Peter, the Rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall never conquer it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; what you forbid on earth shall be forbidden in heaven and what you allow on earth shall be allowed in heaven.”

Emblazoned around the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, is this the charter of the Papacy? It is essential to recognize the importance—-but also the limitations—of these issues of doctrine and biblical interpretation in our understanding of how Christians and Jews have viewed each other, and of how Christians have viewed other Christians.

Because of this central concern for the place of the Bible both in Judaism and Christianity, the nomenclature of the books and portions of the Bible is far more than a matter of names. Christians are accustomed to speak of “the Old Testament” and “the New Testament,” the contrast between “the old” and “the new” unavoidably carrying with it connotations such as “the superseded” or at least “the updated.” In these pages “New Testament” is retained, because that is what Christians call it.

But instead of “Old Testament,” or the various recent attempts at politically correct euphemism such as “First Testament” or “Hebrew Scripture,” it is usually called what it is called within Judaism, Tanakh, which is an acronym of the first letters of the Hebrew titles of its three parts:

Torah, the Five Books of Moses;
Nevi’im, the Prophets;
Kethuvim, the Writings.

Only as a reference to its place within the Christian Bible is it called here “Old Testament.” Following the exalted precedent of Psalm 119, the title of each of the twelve chapters—12 for the 12 tribes of Israel or for the 12 apostles of Christ—includes the name “Bible” or some synonym for it.

1. The God Who Speaks

2. The Truth in Hebrew

3. Moses Speaking Greek

4. Beyond Written Torah: Talmud and Continuing Revelation

5. The Law and Prophets Fulfilled

6. Formation of a Second Testament

7. The Peoples of the Book

8. Back to the Sources

9. The Bible Only

10. The Canon and the Critics

11. A Message for the Whole Human Race

12. The Strange New World Within the Bible

So, does the author answer the question in his book’s title?

AFTERWORD After all this —

After all the commentaries; after all the controversies; after all the sermons; after all that biblical scholarship, whether Jewish or Christian or secular; after all the heresies and all the orthodoxies, whether Jewish or Christian or secular; after all the other books (including this one); after all the prayers and all the tears; after all the forced conversions and all the progroms; and after the Holocaust —

—after all this, the question with which this book began still remains: Whose Bible is it?

In an ultimate sense it is presumptuous for anyone to speak about “possessing” the Bible. As both Jewish and Christian communities of faith have always affirmed, the Bible is the Book of God and the Word of God , and therefore it does not really belong to any of us. Psalm 119, which is one long hymn of praise about the word of God, insists throughout that it is speaking about “thy statutes,” ‘thy testimonies.”

Disappointingly, the rest of his conclusion is “politically correct” in a world of religious diversity. It was our hope that this one book would confirm what we have suspected all along. Sinai 6000 has arrived at recognizing only a very limited part of the “Bible” as the very Word of YHWH. But to explain this requires another article, part III of this series.

Image from www.studyjesus.com

If there is one thing we do recognize and are thankful to Christianity for, it would be this: that in appending the “Old Testament” to the “New,” people all over the world have been exposed to the Hebrew Scriptures. Thanks to our owning Christian Bibles, we had access to the “Old.” Unfortunately, for decades we hardly read, much less seriously studied that part of our Christian Bible because there was enough to study in the New Testament alone. If we ventured into the Old at all, it would be to check out a ‘prooftext’ that would confirm that the “Old” is obsolete and superseded by the “New,” and to check out the many “messianic prophecies” that all pointed to Jesus as the long expected messiah of Israel. Thanks to Messianic teachers, we read much more of the “Old” but still kept seeing Jesus as we were programmed to see him in our NT orientation. So, will a Christian ever understand what a Sinaite sees and understands today? Hopefully so, but probably not, not as long as he/she is using a Christian Bible.

In behalf of the Sinai Core Community,

SINAI 6000

IN HIS NAME – Where in What Bible is Whose Word? – 3

February 10, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[This was first posted in 2012. The original title was: Where in what bible is His Word? For this post, we have retitled it “Where in What Bible is Whose Word?” This, we feel, well reflects any book that claims to be “the very words of God” and therefore, it is no wonder that the biggest seller of all time (or so we imagine anyway), is the 2-part Christian Bible. It is also the most translated, retranslated, republished, revised, most purchased but least read., much less understood. And if we might add its “Old” Testament is hardly an accurate translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Does this post answer its own title-question? Find out.–Admin1.]

Image from www.larryhuchministries.com

Here’s a short version of “the shrinking of a Sinaite’s Bible.”

As Christian/Messianics, we believed the Christian Bible is God’s Word; every word of it, we were taught, was God-breathed, Holy Spirit-inspired; that God used men as His mouthpieces. So every writer in both the Old and New Testaments spoke for God. Other articles in this website explain when and what we discovered about the questionability of New Testament books. Totally convinced that the NT is not the Word of God but the word of men, we turned to what it claims to be its foundational scriptures —the “Old” Testament.
The “Old Testament” in the Christian Bible, we found out, was not an accurate version of the Hebrew Scriptures so we got several different translations of the Tanach, Tanakh, TNK and started over. By the time we finished pouring over the 22 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, we reached a definite conclusion.
The first five books of TNK, specifically the Torah [the T in TNK] contains all that humans need to know about the requirements of the Creator God Who revealed Himself first to Israel. Requirements for what? Relationships! First, man’s relationship with God, and second, man’s relationship with his fellowmen. And, let us not neglect, one’s relationship to oneself, as in — how do I protect my body from disease, what to eat, what to do when I get sick, and so on. YHWH did not leave out instructions affecting any aspect man’s living on this earth for his own good.

It is ALL in the Torah, as given to the handpicked mediator who was prepared for this role: Moses. We have mentioned this much in other articles — that the rest of the TNK, Nevi’im or the Prophets, and Ketuvi’im or the Writings, all center on what has already been given in Torah. The prophets in Nevi’im who keep saying “Thus saith the LORD” warn Israel about its failure to live Torah and gives prophecies about future events affecting Israel as well as the nations. The Writings in Ketuvi’im are inspired books that still refer back to the Torah, or elaborate on its teachings, or narrate stories about men and women of faith, or that reflect on YHWH’s attributes. None of them contradict what has already been revealed on the Torah. YHWH gives a warning in the last book of the Torah about adding or subtracting from it.

So where is God’s Word in What Bible? Answer: Imbedded in The Torah, and in the Hebrew Bible.

The Creator God Who identified Himself as the God who formed Israel through its patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spoke to Moses initially, then to Moses and Aaron, then to Israel’s leaders, then to the mixed multitude gathered at the foot of Sinai.

That God revealed His Name to Moses as YHWH so that Israelites as well as Pharaoh and the Egyptians could thence identify that God Who spoke from Sinai.

That God on Sinai wrote His Ten Words on two stone tablets which were broken by Moses, then He wrote His Ten Words a second time on a second set of tablets.

Then, to elaborate on those 10 Commandments, He gave Moses detailed instructions about 603 more statutes and ordinances, and repetitive reminders and warnings, even a recapitulation in Deuteronomy for the benefit of the second generation of Israelites born in the wilderness who would conquer the promised land with Joshua and Caleb, the remaining two from the original generation who stood at the foot of Sinai.

If the God on Sinai Whose Name is YHWH changed His nature and His plans through the centuries to spring a surprise on poor Israel, in whose national memory the Torah was instilled, whose covenant was superseded by a second covenant with a gentile church, then what kind of a God is He? It is the ultimate insult to YHWH that He would be characterized as such by the “newer” testament, which “newer” scriptures reconfigured Him from One to a confusing three-in-one godhead, with a new name to be uttered by all men to replace His, just to gain access to Him, which He Himself never imposed as a rule of approach! At least not according to the “original” God Who revealed Himself in the original Torah and the original Hebrew Scriptures. That Self-revealing God is portrayed as constantly reaching out to humanity, to His servant and son and chosen Israel, with compassion for the “stranger” and the “foreigner” among them . . . the Gentile.

When Christians say the God of Israel is still represented in the Trinity as the Father, so that He’s still in the picture — well, He has been eclipsed by the Son in all ways. In fact, the Name YHWH has been all but forgotten. Jews hesitate to say it, Christians only use “Father.” And everyone else uses “Lord” and “God” as if those were names.

This is why it is so important to name the God we worship. No, we all don’t worship the same God. Some worship Baal, Molech, Mother Nature, Isis, Zeus, Allah, Shiva, Vishnu . . . and Jesus. . . . Holy Spirit . . . .the “I” in idolatry, meaning self.

The God we Sinaites worship is the God Who spoke on Sinai and gave His revelation recorded in the Torah. It is His Name we are proud to declare: YHWH.

In behalf of Sinai 6000 Core Community,

ISRAEL

EXODUS: "The Spiritual Contrast between Israel And Egypt"

February 10, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

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[First posted in 2012.

The source is one of the most valuable on our list of Resources, virtually a study bible which we have featured almost from page to page; not only a MUST READ but a MUST OWN for any serious student of the TORAH: Pentateuch & Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J. H. Hertz, published by The Soncino Press. Please buy a copy; it is available at amazon.com. These are excerpts from: EXODUS—ADDITIONAL NOTES; reformatting and highlights added—Admin1.]

————————

Israel and Egypt represent—

two world-conceptions,
two ways of looking on God and Man
that are not merely in conflict,
but mutually exclusive.

For ages Egypt was the Land of Wonder, and men spoke in awe of the wisdom of the Egyptians. We know now that they were indeed a wonderful people; but it is only in the arts and crafts, and especially in their colossal and titanic architecture, that they attained truly astonishing results.

The real tests of a nation’s civilization, however, are far other than these.

The supreme test is its vision of God.

Now what were the objects of Egyptian worship?

Stocks and stones, and, above all else, the beast. While there are traces, albeit faint traces, that the men of the Nile Valley were capable of learning both in religion and conduct, they seem to have been quite incapable of forgetting. Egypt never discarded the low animism and savage fetishism of its prehistoric days, and remained always ‘zoomorphic’ in its conception of God: bulls, crocodiles, beetles, apes, cats, and goats–these were its gods.

There were, it is true, stammerings of something nobler; glimpses of higher religious truth; but these remained only glimpses–like flashes of light for one brief moment in the night-time, leaving greater darkness, Egyptian darkness, behind.

Once only was an attempt made by that remarkable man, Amenophis IV, to reform the barbarism of Egyptian worship and to put a kind of monotheism in its place. The sun was to be worshipped as the single deity under the name of Aton; and he changed his own name to Ikhnaton, ‘Glory to the Sun.’ But the reformation was a failure. He died amid the curses of his subjects, and the old confused polytheism returned stronger than ever.

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‘We have no grounds for holding the opinion,’ says Prof. R. H. Hall, ‘that the educated Egyptian priest, far less the man in the street, normally accepted any pious theories of a latent monotheism, underlying his blatant polytheism. Ikhnaton was branded as a criminal; and after his failure, we go back to the old spells and mumbo-jumbo again . . . till the death of the Egyptian religion in the days of Justinian. In religious matters, the Egyptians at all periods (except the educated at the end of the 18th Dynasty) were in the mental condition of the blacks of the Gold Coast and Niger delta. They had “mysteries”, of course like the Ashantis or Ibos. It is a mistake, however, to think that these mysteries enshrined truth, and that there was an occult ‘faith’ behind them. There is no more proof of it than in the case of the Ashantis or Ibos’ (Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1929).

Now where there is no vision of God

there can be no vision of man.

Hence the insignificance of man in the Egyptian world-conception.

They bent the knee to the beast, but man throughout Egyptian history was in bondage.
Human life had absolutely no value.
The lives of vast multitudes of men were sacrificed in connection with the frenzied building schemes.

Herodotus tells us that in the time of Pharaoh Necho II (609-588 B.C.E.), 120,000 labourers were worked to death in the construction of a canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea. The pyramids, erected by the tyrant’s unlimited command of human forces, remain everlasting deification of reckless and irresponsible power.

In eternal contrast to Egypt,

the whole story of Israel

is one long protest against

idolatry and inhumanity.

A single incident in the life of a Jewish ruler will illustrate the world-wide difference between Israel and Egypt.

King Jehoiakim, a contemporary of Pharaoh Necho II, tried to emulate his example, and built himself palaces by means of forced labour. In Egypt, such a thing was taken as a matter of course, as the unquestioned prerogative of the king. In Israel, that enterprise was deemed an outrage against reason and human decency.

Jeremiah the Prophet arose and came to the door of Jeoiakim’s palace, crying:

Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness,

and his chambers by injustice;

that useth his neighbour’s service without wages,

and giveth him not his hire . . .

Thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousness,

and for shedding innocent blood,

and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim,

the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

They shall not lament for him . . .

He shall be buried with the burial of an ass,

drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem

(Jer. XXII,13,17-19).

These words of Jeremiah are but a Prophetic echo of the Israelite’s cry for freedom that pierced the heavens in the days of Moses; they are but the translation of the trumpet sounds of the Exodus and the Sinaitic Covenant, with their Divine and everlasting proclamation of the rights of man.

Image from www.brynmawr.edu

Another characteristic element in the religious life of Egypt was Worship of the dead.

[From: Max Muller’s article in the Encyclopedia Biblica.]

The huge pyramids alone, says Prof. Muller, would be sufficient to testify that the Egyptians devoted greater zeal than any nation on earth to the abodes of their dead, and to the sustenance of their souls by sacrifices.

The Bible of the Egyptians is the so-called ‘Book of the Dead’. It contains magic formula for the guidance of man after death, warning him of the dangers he might expect to meet, and providing him with powerful spells–previously placed on the coffins for this purpose–to guarantee his safety. When the dead man reached the great Judgment Hall of the god Osiris, his moral life was tested. In the course of that judgment, the deceased denied that he had ever committed any of the 42 cardinal sins.

(H.R. Hall rightly says: ‘The Egyptian was never a humble person, either genuinely or hypocritically. When he confessed he did not say, ‘I am guilty’; he said, ‘I am not guilty’; his confession was negative, and the onus probandi lay on his judges.)

Simultaneously with the doctrine just stated, there existed the conflicting belief that the departed souls lived in darkness and misery in the nether world, persecuted by evil spirits, so that it was best for the dead person to become, by witchcraft, one of these evil monsters himself.

No wonder that the influence of the Egyptian religion on the lives of men was not very profound. In every aspect the morality of the Egyptians seems to have been lax. One example will suffice. The tombs were almost invariably broken into soon after burial, and no military protection could prevent even the royal tombs from being plundered.

When we compare the Egyptian attitude towards death with that of the Pentateuchs, we see in the latter what appears to be a deliberate aim to wean the Israelites from Egyptian superstition.

In this way alone can we explain the silence of Israel’s Torah

in regard to the Life after Death.

On the one hand, there is not a word concerning immortality, or concerning reward and punishment in the Hereafter; and on the other hand, there is rigorous proscription of all magic and sorcery, of sacrificing to the dead, as well as every form of alleged intercourse with the world of the spirits.

Israel’s Faith is a religion of life, not of death;

a religion that declares man’s humanity to man

as the most acceptable form of adoration of the One God,

the Creator of heaven and earth,

Who is from everlasting to everlasting.

Israel while in Egypt was yet but a child, and was not strong enough to withstand Egypt in Egypt.

Only out of Egypt could it grow, uncontaminated by noxious influences of a decadent civilization.

Only when liberated from the contagion of a nation of mere childish stammerers in the things of the Spirit, could it flourish, and fill the earth with the glad tidings of a God of holiness and pity, and the message of Righteousness to men and nations.

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CHRISTIANITY

Sinaite Notes – The Christian ‘Old’ Testament – 3

February 10, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

A Sinaite’s Notes/Sinai6000.net

[First posted June 10,2012.—Admin1].

The originators of the Christian Bible who decided to append the Hebrew Scriptures to the canon of the New Testament did not only tack it as a prequel but transformed it in subtle ways, then renamed it the “Old Testament.” Understandably so. Had they left it as it originally was, it would not perfectly fit their New Testament theology and make sense to the Greek or Western mind.

If you think about it, why transform the scriptures that are not yours to begin with? Why not simply add to yours in original form and text and translation? Does that make sense unless there’s an underlying agenda?

Don’t be surprised if Jews do not read the “Old Testament” in the Christian Bible. They read their Hebrew Scriptures, the TNK. Wonder why?

What specific transformations did the original Hebrew Bible undergo in the Christian Old Testament?

1. Order of Books — After the first five books of Moses, the books were rearranged following the logical progression of chronological order. The history of the beginnings of the nation of Israel from Genesis to Deuteronomy continued through historical narratives, Joshua, Judges, I & II Samuel, I & II Kings, I & II Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah.

Out of the blue, the book of Ruth was sandwiched between Judges and I Samuel, perhaps to follow the ancestry of David from whom Jesus would fit in both bloodline and kingly line.

Between this category and the last category of Prophets are the Wisdom Books which include Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

The OT five “major” prophets of Israel precede the nine “minor” prophets. There are only 3 major prophets in TNK, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Daniel is relegated to the Ketuviim or the Writings, he was not considred a prophet but an interpreter of dreams just like Joseph. But without Daniel as prophet in OT, the book of Revelation in NT would not make much sense since its interpretation heavily depends on the images in Daniel.

By ending the Christian Old Testament with Malachi, the connection with a sequel, the New Testament, has been prepared because Elijah is supposed to return and there is speculation in NT who Elijah is, John the Baptist?

The Hebrew Bible ends with the book of Chronicles; there is good reason for it, for one of YHWH’s “anointed” or “messiah,” a gentile king, Cyrus of Persia, has announced the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The final verse reads:

Whoever there is among you of His entire people — may HaShem his God be with him, and let him go up!

2. Number of Books —

The Hebrew Scriptures have 24 books; the Christian Old Testament has 39.
The Protestant Bible version split Samuel, Kings, Chronicles into I & II, then numbered the “minor” prophets as 12 separate books instead of being one book in the original Hebrew; it also split Ezra-Nehemiah which is counted as one book in the Hebrew Bible.
The Catholic Bible Old Testament add the apocryphal books to their version, books that were not considered as sacred scripture by the Jews. Other versions have Pseudepigrapha, also not considered as scripture by the Jews.

3. Change of Hebrew Titles to Greek Titles —

Since the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek and that translation was known as the Septuagint, the Greek titles simply took over and it is those titles that have been retained, even by some Hebrew Bibles that have been translated in English, just to help new readers familiar with the Christian Old Testament identify the book. Along with book titles, names of people, places, objects naturally underwent the same process, first in Greek, then further Anglicized to what we recognize today.

4. Mistranslation of verses used as prooftext, specifically to turn them into “messianic prophecies” pointing to Jesus Christ — Anti-missionary Jewish websites are the best links for specific studies relating to the mistranslation of these verses; we will try to get permission to reprint them in this series of articles.

We have many posts related to specifics regarding changes made from the original Hebrew text of the Hebrew Scriptures or TNK to the Old Testament text in the Christian Bible. You will find them listed under SITEMAP. For now this is just an overview. You, reader, should do your homework and check out the claims in this post, not swallow without question.