The study of biblical Aramaic, an ancient Semitic language from which the Hebrew alphabet was derived, is necessary for understanding texts written during certain periods of early Jewish and Christian history and is especially important for the study of the books of Daniel and Ezra. This new textbook is a thorough guide to learning to read and translate biblical Aramaic and includes an introduction to the language, examples of texts for practice translations, and helpful comparison charts.
Andreas Schuele is Aubrey Lee Brooks Professor of Biblical Theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary. He earned doctoral degrees in both Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Old Testament from the University of Heidelberg. His research focuses on language, literary history, and theology of the Old Testament. Show More
Jesus was no wimp! By Johnnie Moore, Liberty University President, Foxnews.com
[A common misconception that many people have is that Jesus was a weakling, a wimp, someone who was so passive that he enabled evil. This notion is most popular with liberals who seem to think that Jesus was a wimp and that being wimpy is somehow godly. Jesus called people to repent and live a life of virtue-but liberals think social evils, such as sodomy, abortion, prostitution, ect., are virtues. Now, for his day and time, Jesus would have been considered "liberal" and "anti-establishment." However, modern liberalism is immoral and debauched and its system of immorality is something that is opposed to the spirit of Christ. And, today Liberalism is the establishment. I recently read through a disturbing book entitled "The New Leviathan" by David Horowitz. It is about the vast financial resources of the radical left. They have billions-and they pretty much control all the purse-strings in America. Opposing them seems really hopeless, but the Bible says, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." Horowitz shows that the idea that the democrats are the common people opposed to the wealthy Republican establishment isn't true-actually the opposite is true. However, I don't like the RINO Republican establishment either.]
Of course, as a Bible-believing evangelical, I do not believe that Christians should treat people maliciously, take revenge or fight with others arbitrarily. I believe we should show extraordinary restraint. But, when someone asked me if I thought God would "get even" with people, I decided to make a nuanced, theological point: "God would, and he did, get even." In the end, God won. They must have expected me to react the way some liberal reporters responded in the aftermath of Mr. Trump's speech. The liberal press, which obviously couldn't bear the thought of Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Donald Trump working together to halt the current assault on the American free enterprise system, immediately took to the Bible to try to drive a wedge between these patriotic allies. They wanted us evangelicals to go ahead and stay put (and quiet) in our nice little box. After all, it's much easier to take advantage of us that way. Yet, I believe, it's high time that Christians toughen up a bit. Christians shouldn't be malicious, but they also shouldn't let people run all over them. Is it heretical to believe God is, and God wants us to be, tough? Hardly. Read the Bible. It's filled with God pursuing justice, settling scores with folks who messed with him, or who messed with his people, and – believe it or not - Jesus is "Exhibit A." The prevailing view of Jesus, mainly among liberal Christians, might be that he was a blond-haired, blue-eyed, fluffy little self-help teacher who spent lots of time tip-toeing through the lilies, doling out softly worded pieces of advice to children, and saying things like, "can't we all get along." However, Jesus was no "patsy," (as Trump might say) and being around him wasn't always like being cuddled up in a nice, warm Snuggie ®. Jesus was a tough character. The same Jesus who preached compassion is the same Jesus who publicly embarrassed his nemeses (the Pharisees) by calling them "a bunch of snakes" in front of a large crowd of people. The same Jesus who said, in a particular and oft-misunderstood context, that we ought to "turn the other cheek" is the same Jesus who made a royal mess out of the temple by taking a whip to a bunch of moneychangers. Does that sound like a cuddly Jesus who lets people run all over him? Jesus didn't float on down to planet earth like a deflating balloon. He dropped down like an atom bomb, and his very presence was a provocation. Christians believe Jesus was perfect, and sinless, yet it seems like two images of Jesus emerge in the Bible. One wonders if the real Jesus is the lover of lepers, or is it the tough-as-nails, Judean prophet with dirt under his fingernails "cleansing the temple?" Equally contradictory is the advice King Solomon once gave in the Old Testament, "do NOT answer a fool lest you become like him" to which he immediately followed by saying, "DO answer a fool lest he take advantage of you." (Proverbs 26:4-5). What was Solomon's point, and what can we learn from Jesus' example? We must be wise about "when" and "how" we react when someone has treated us unjustly, but we mustn't be fearful of standing up for ourselves. Of course, Christians shouldn't treat people maliciously and they shouldn't fight arbitrarily, but Christians – like Jesus – should pursue justice, and they should – like Jesus – not let people take advantage of them. Jesus might have been meek, but he sure wasn't weak. He had a steel spine; he spoke boldly and strongly. In the end he had lots of enemies who nailed him to a tree to shut him up. Then, Christians believe, Jesus just raised himself from the dead – showing that he was in control of everything, anyhow. I might just call that more than "getting even."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/07/donald-trump-right-christians-should-be-tough-like-jesus/#ixzz28eMSfNo9
Officer Blacklisted for teaching facts about Islam
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/05/rising-career-us-army-officer-matthew-dooley-halted-for-teaching-soldiers-on/?test=latestnews#ixzz28U9kvoqy
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/04/egypt-hardline-islamist-party-unravels-pointing-to-fragility-in-political-islam/#ixzz28YG6UlRh
Captain Hook arrested and extradited to the United States
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/06/2-terrorism-suspects-extradited-to-us-to-appear-in-conn-court/#ixzz28YH4Khds
Coptic boys arrested in Egypt for violating Sharia Law
New York's MET will not display images of Mohammed
US Church Remains in 'Coma' Despite Cataclysmic Events in Middle East, Says Watchdog By Alex Murashko , Christian Post Reporter
The church in America is no longer simply in a slumber when it comes to its lack of awareness about the persecuted church in the Middle East; it is in a "diabetic coma," says the leader of a persecution watchdog group in the U.S. "For years we've said wake up and strengthen what remains," Open Doors USA President and CEO Dr. Carl Moeller told The Christian Post in an exclusive interview. "We would think of the American church as a napping church and that we would elbow it and it would wake up and rouse itself and do something. "In my mind today, the picture I have is a church in a diabetic coma that has gorged itself on the sweets of affluence, materialism, and the idolatry of worshipping the materialistic world. That diabetic coma is now life threatening. We as a church are at the point of death – not the church in the Middle East. We are the ones who can no longer rouse ourselves to even pray for an hour on behalf of things that God would have us pray for." Moeller said he has been working with Open Doors for almost 10 years to bring an awareness of "the suffering church to the American church conscience." "Revelation 3:4 says, 'Wake up, and strengthen what remains about to die.' For 50-plus years Open Doors has taken that verse as a motive to wake the church in the West up and to motivate them to go and strengthen what remains in the Body of Christ that is about to die in those places where the church is suffering," he explained. "It's always been a case where we talked about waking the church up in the West, but also serving the church that is in utter persecution." However, Moeller now believes that even the "cataclysmic events that are going on around the world today" have not awakened the church in the West. Events that he says have transpired without sufficient notice or action by Christians in the U.S. are such things as the bombing of the Israeli bus in Bulgaria, and Iran calling for the destruction of Israel and the United States.
He added, "We have the election of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the U.S. government affirming basically a terrorist organization as the legitimate government of the key intellectual capital of Islam and the Arab world in Cairo. We have in Syria a blood bath where Christians are literally caught between the hammer and the anvil, but there is a despotic regime being set upon by an Islamic extremist rebel force and the world is saying ok, we are going to take sides with the extremists." Moeller believes Open Doors has a unique perspective as it has ministry workers on the ground in many Middle Eastern countries in efforts to support Christians who are persecuted for their faith by governments and other faith groups. "I'm utterly amazed at the inability of Americans to put two and two together at times. This is what has challenged me," he said. "We've been working in those places where Christians are persecuted for decades. We've seen what real, true fire-tested Christianity looks like and the faith that it produces. We've also seen unfortunately a slumbering church in the West move deeper and deeper into sleep." He believes that one of the most telling signs that Jesus will soon return to the world is "this great apostasy in our church today of people who claim to be Christians and yet have neither the guts nor the hands to live out the Christian life the way our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church have." "The American church is now on a death spiral to final unconsciousness," he said. "If we were to say what is the insulin that the church needs desperately to wake up from its diabetic coma, it's to understand that the lies of a materialistic culture are not true. We need a dose of truth and the truth is found in the persecuted Christians' experience with Christ. They are the ones that know that despite all the attempts of the enemy to destroy the church, persecution only serves to strengthen the true faith of believers. That's the message the American church needs to know and learn." He said he is absolutely convinced that persecution will come to America "because we have left God no option." "One of the greatest tools of the enemy is to make the church in America and the Western world numb to the cries and suffering to people around the world," he explained. "As a result of the church being unconscious, the enemy is going to invade. The enemy is going to destroy our family, our lives, our culture, and our freedoms. Once those things are taken away then maybe the church will rouse itself because in persecution the church inevitably does become more aware of what has been taken away from it in terms of freedoms." Moeller said he hopes and prays that the current state of the church in the U.S. does not become a permanent disability. "I want nothing more of a church that is simply entertaining," he said. "I want a church that is prepping people for the inevitable battle that is raging all around us spiritually."
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/us-church-remains-in-coma-despite-cataclysmic-events-in-middle-east-says-watchdog-78887/#rPS4lutqbQ2LC4Vz.99
Iranian-American to publish Holocaust history online for Iranians
By Lisa Daftari
Published October 01, 2012 FoxNews.com
It's not hard for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to insist that the Holocaust never took place when there's virtually no Persian-language record of it, but an Iranian-American author is making it his mission to correct the historical record in his homeland. Ari Babaknia, a 65-year-old from Orange County, Calif., has written a four-volume book in Persian entitled "Holocaust," which he hopes will allow Iranians to learn the truth about the suffering of Jews at the hands of Nazis. Babaknia hopes to make the book available for free online within the borders of Iran. "It is not enough to sell this book," said Babaknia, a Jew who went to medical school in Iran in the 1970s and now is a fertility specialist in Newport Beach, Calif. "The power and reach of the Internet is where the real impact of this book will be. "I want the entire young Persian-speaking world who have access to the Internet to have the ability to download it, read it and research it." Ahmadinejad has repeatedly insisted that the Holocaust is a "myth" and that the extermination of six million Jews at the hands of Nazis never happened. The Ahmadinejad line is in keeping with the denials of the hard-line government that has ruled the Islamic Republic since the revolution of 1979. When Babaknia began researching his subject 15 years ago, he was surprised to discover that there was no Holocaust material in Persian, the language also referred to as Farsi. Not only was there no description of the Holocaust, there was little historical context for younger Iranians to learn about the mid-20th century events that shaped the world. "I wanted to know where the rest of the world was," Babaknia said. "Where was Churchill? Where was Roosevelt? What was the reason for world leaders to be indifferent?" After all, he said, "forgetting the Holocaust is repeating the Holocaust." Babaknia's book is self-published through his Memorah Foundation, together with Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. Once he recoups his expenses, he plans to release the content online for free. That could be problematic, however, as Tehran has announced plans to create a separate Internet for Iran, one that the theocratic government could control. Babaknia knows of that plan but is unfazed. "What happens with the Internet over there is beyond my control, but you cannot suppress humanity forever," he said. Babaknia has managed to create some awareness within Iran of his project, largely through dozens of interviews with Iranian satellite TV stations that broadcast directly into the country. One important point he emphasizes is that Iran has a positive story to tell regarding the Holocaust. "Iran has always been good to Jews," he said. "During the Holocaust, there are many instances that show how good the Iranian people and officials were to Jews. This goes against Ahmadinejad's claim that the Holocaust didn't happen. Iran was one of the refuges for victims." Babaknia, who came to the U.S. in 1974 to complete his residency in gynecology at Johns Hopkins University and has lived here ever since, originally thought he would be able to finish the book in a year or two. "I didn't care how long it would take, I took it upon myself to tell the whole story, and it took five years," he said. The volumes are entitled, "Man's Inhumanity to Man," "America's Response to the Holocaust," "The World's Response to the Holocaust" and "End of the Holocaust and Liberation of Nazi Camps and the Genocides of the Last 100 Years." The four volumes are available through Amazon and the websites HolocaustinFarsi.com and Memorah.com for $200. Babaknia is also traveling the country for book signings and speaking engagements. In April, Babaknia will be coming out with a second book, this time in English, about the psychological experiences of both Holocaust victims and oppressors. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/01/iranian-american-to-publish-holocaust-history-online-for-iranians/?test=latestnews#ixzz289fGiieO
Stephen Missick PO BOX 882, Shepherd, TX 77371 www.youtube.com/aramaic12, www.aramaicherald.blogspot.com
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