Why is the Jewish New Year celebrated in modern times in Tishri, the seventh month, not in Nisan, which is specified as the first month in Exodus? There is no mention of a New-Year Day in the Jewish Tanakh (Old Testament). However, in Exodus 12:2, God commanded the Children of…
There is much confusion in Christian circles about the meaning and application of the phrase “times of the Gentiles” as spoken by Jesus and recorded in the Book of Luke. Many modern expositors consider the “times of the Gentiles” to still be underway, despite what Jesus said about its duration,…
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is observed on the 10th day of Tishri on the Hebrew calendar. Jews all over the world will go to their local synagogue on that day for the purpose of achieving atonement. However, the Tanakh says Yom Kippur as celebrated by Jews today will…
On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, establishing the first sovereign Jewish state in 2,000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in…
How long did the Israelites sojourn in Egypt? The Bible is correct, they were there 430 years. In the Tanakh (Old Testament), it says “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, [was] four hundred and thirty years.” (Exodus 12:40) But, despite that clear statement about…
The most popular traditional interpretations of Daniel 9:24-27 (aka the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks or the Messiah Prophecy) begin their exposition with a Persian decree, most often the one issued by Artaxerxes I Longimanus to Nehemiah. That decree is usually dated by most traditional interpreters to 445 BCE. The…
The Book of Daniel describes a detailed history of the Jewish people and must be interpreted from that viewpoint. The seventh chapter of Daniel describes a period of Jewish history involving four kings described as beasts, with the fourth beast having ten horns, each horn in turn representing a king.…
Chronology, together with prophecy, is one of my main areas of Bible research, so I am often asked why I avoid getting involved in the Young Earth vs. Old Earth debate. It’s a fair question. The simple answer is I don’t believe that man can establish a date for Creation…
If Judaism ever builds a new Temple in Jerusalem, what attitude should followers of Jesus have toward it? In short, we should ignore it. A new Jewish Temple in Jerusalem won’t have any positive supernatural meaning for New Covenant believers or anyone else, and here’s why … Since the time…
Edwin R. Thiele is little known in Christian lay circles, but he is famous among theologians and in the academic community for his book, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, which supposedly harmonizes the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah. However, Thiele got it wrong. There is…