Why Learn to Speak a Dead Language?

You might inquire, “Now that you’re a pensioner, what, for Heaven’s sake, do you do with all your spare time?” Well, other than playing with my four grandsons, ages 7, 5 and 3 (twins), I don’t have much to do. ☺

JerusalemPerspective.com Can Help You Find Answers!

You are studying your Bible and you read Jesus' words in Matthew 6:22-23, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness" (KJV). You scratch your head wondering what Jesus meant by "single eye" and "evil eye." JerusalemPerspective.com can help you find the answer.

What's Happening to the Holy Tongue?

Day by day, Modern Hebrew is enriched by the vocabulary of many languages, but particularly by English, the world's "international language." Hebrew picks up hundreds of English words each year. Such borrowings from English, written in Hebrew letters, feel Hebrew to most Israelis. Usually, Hebrew speakers are not aware that such loan words did not originate in Hebrew.

Our Knowledge of Greek: An Embarrassment to the Profession!

We New Testament scholars and Greek professors are often embarrassed by our level of Greek fluency, even after, as in my case, 35 years of studying this ancient biblical language. A lack of true fluency in Greek, active knowledge of the language as opposed to passive, is the scourge of our professions. Finding ourselves in this situation, our disappointment is real, but it is kept hidden from the general public.

New Basic Book for Jewish Roots Studies

"Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus" has just appeared, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Please read this book, and then tell your friends about it. Spangler and Tverberg's book is the best entry-level introduction to the subject of "Jewish Roots" that has been written. By the way, Dr. Tverberg was co-editor (with Bruce Okkema) of my "New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus."

Hebrew as a Spoken Language in First-century Israel

An extremely interesting discussion is now taking place on the Bible Translation Discussion List (Bible-Translation@lists.kastanet.org). Jack Kilmon has stated (13Nov08), “Jesus/Yeshua's native language was Aramaic. That is no longer disputed in serious scholarship,” and (15Nov08), “There is no evidence whatsoever...

Views That Have Vanished: The Photographs of David Bivin

I have wonderful news to share with you. Forty-five years ago, when I first came to Israel, I was an avid photographer. Throughout the 1960s, I traveled all over the country with my camera in hand, taking pictures of beautiful landscapes, archaeological excavations, and cultural events. After about a decade and several thousand photographs, I put the camera aside and turned to other pursuits. When publishing Jerusalem Perspective magazine (in the 1980s and 1990s), I had great need of images for the magazine, but time and technology never allowed me to make use of those photos. About four years ago, I approached Todd Bolen (founder of BiblePlaces.com) with the idea of creating a digital collection from the best of my photographs. Today, I am pleased to announce that the collection is finished and available.

Remembering Lindsey

The third "Lindsey Lectures" (see program below) was held this week at the hall of the Narkis Street Congregation in Jerusalem. I was asked to "remember" Dr. Lindsey (who passed away in 1995), so I surveyed what has been done...

"When you see the south [southeast, east] wind blow"

Israel is having a Sirocco this week, typical of April and May, with temperatures in Jerusalem soaring to 37 degrees (98 Fahrenheit) and over 40 degrees (104) in most of the rest of the country. “And when you see the...

Searching JerusalemPerspective.com

The JP site was chosen by ReferenceSearch.org as its first Launch Partner. The result is that searching on JerusalemPerspective.com has been revolutionized!

The search bar has been taking on some major improvements over the past four months. With these new tools, you can find the exact word or phrase, or biblical or other ancient reference, in any article on the JP web site.