A Virtual File Cabinet for Our Studies of Christian Origins & Hebraic Faith
This post is Claude.ai’s summary on 9/22/2026 of an essay by Marc Zvi Brettler and Amy-Jill Levine published and downloaded from TheTorah.com at the links below. The essay presents a core Jewish-Christian divide that is a puzzle: many Jews find the Christian belief in atonement through Jesus’s blood strange, while many Christians assume Jews lack […]
Continue ReadingThis post contains most of James Tabor’s post on 9/20/26 sharing the story and his interpretation of the scriptures. After Tabor’s post is the relevant scriptures from Leviticus 16, Legacy Standard Bible. All emphasis is mine. “Being “washed in the blood of the lamb” has become a more appealing cultural image in our Christian imagination, […]
Continue ReadingFrom Claude.ai on 5/10/2026. Follow-up to the summary of Ehrman’s interview of Collins here. Prompt: Collins mentions [in the summary linked above] the intellectual class in Yavne and Babylonia. Provide context and background to the people to whom he is referring and their history. Cite all sources in line. Claude responded: Here is a detailed […]
Continue ReadingExtracts from the BAS article by Jeffrey P. García by the same name. Jeffrey P. Arroyo García is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Gordon College. He specializes in the Gospels and Greco-Roman Jewish literature.
Continue ReadingFrom the forward to Days of Awe and Wonder: How to Be a Christian in the Twenty-first Century. A passage from the Jewish Sabbath Prayer Book: Days pass, and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. Fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your Presence, […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 12/19/2025, as a follow-up to here; that was a follow-up to here; that was a follow-up to here that was a follow-up to the initial prompt here. How do critical bible scholars view the idea of YHWH coming from the south and Moses being told at the burning bush YHWH’s name? Overview […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT based on Tabor’s paper he shared in Dec. 2025 that is in Dropbox…\James Tabor\Courses\Christianity Before Paul\Introduction – The Jewish World of John, Jesus, and James.pdf” Below is a side-by-side chronological timeline that places John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and James the Just within the historical events framework used by Dr. James Tabor. […]
Continue ReadingSee Did God Write the Torah — and Does it Matter? For many Jews, the Torah’s authority does not derive from being a divine document. by Marc Zvi Brettler at MyJewishLearning.com. The article is in a Word doc in DropBox’s folder “Jewish Topics”. Claude.ai was asked to summarize the article and that summary is pasted […]
Continue ReadingA: During the Hasmonean/Maccabean period, when they needed laws, and took up the laws written by the past scribes who wanted the average folks to obey, but few had done so. [my understanding] “When did Judaism begin?” is not a naive question. Every answer to this question would require presenting an acceptable definition of Judaism. […]
Continue ReadingFrom Shabbat of the Full Moon: Early biblical laws demand a cessation of labor every seven days, but that was unconnected to Shabbat, which was originally a full moon celebration by Prof. Jacob L. Wright Summary: Two Separate Institutions The texts explored above suggest that the populations of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah commemorated […]
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