23 Jul 2020

Bones of Israel
Having gotten to the end of the Hidden Bones study, and having found that it ends quite differently than I had anticipated, I've now begun a full re-write that allows the beginning to point towards the end. I have completed the rewrite of the first two sections of the study and I have posted a PDF file of those sections under the PDF tab of this blog. Further review and modific...
Read more

23 Apr 2020

Bones of Israel
We never expected to be able to identify the scribe responsible for The Hidden Bones Apocalypse. It has come as a surprise that there is a very logical answer to the question of his identity. That answer is driven by: 1) our conclusion regarding timing, 2) the content of the Hidden Bones message, and 3) the relationship of the Hidden Bones message to the other writings of the period, bot...
Read more

24 Mar 2020

Bones of Israel
(This is a summary of a section of the book “The Hidden Bones Apocalypse”, which is nearing completion.) We can identify the time period during which our scribe inserted the hidden bones marker phrase into the biblical text with a high degree of confidence. This is an outline of the process of identification. First, we can establish the extreme parameters of the insertion timing as...
Read more

15 Feb 2020

Bones of Israel
Having just completed the section of The Hidden Bones study that addresses the issue of the timing of the insertion of the marker phrase into the Hebrew text of the bible, I'm now going to begin the section that will identify our scribe. That will be followed by an additional analysis of the hiddenness issue, specifically addressing the suppression of the message in the early rabbinic...
Read more

15 Feb 2020

Bones of Israel, Judaic Topics
I've just completed the section of The Hidden Bones Apocalypse that analyzes the question: When were the special marker phrases that define that Apocalypse inserted into the biblical text? The initial time window is defined on the early end by the translation of the Pentateuch into Greek. I've used a date of 250 BCE for that, although some would say it might be as early as 275 BCE. ...
Read more

14 Feb 2020

Bones of Israel, Judaic Topics
This is an excerpt of a section in our analysis of The Hidden Bones Apocalypse: Shavuot in Ezekiel The reader’s first reaction to the heading of this section might be ‘but there is no Shavuot in Ezekiel’. That is the standard reading of Ezekiel, of course. It is said that Ezekiel ignores Shavuot in his listing of the festivals because he wrote from the perspective of exile. Shavuot...
Read more

21 Apr 2019

Bones of Israel
Just a quick update. Having completed the research on and analysis of each of the ten "bones" found as markers in the Hebrew text of the bible I've been drawn more and more to the question of its provenance. How did the markers get into the text? When did they become a part of the text? Who might have been responsible for their insertion? How does the provenance affect their int...
Read more

19 Apr 2019

Bones of Israel, Judaic Topics
One of the conflicts presented in the Book of Daniel involves the power to ‘change the times and the seasons’.[1] In Dan 2:21 we find Daniel recounting his revelation regarding the king’s dream. He says that it is God who ‘…changes times and seasons…’ In Chapter 7, though, we read of one who will ‘…speak words against the Most High, and will harass the holy ones of the Most High, he w...
Read more

06 Jun 2018

Bones of Israel, Judaic Topics
After teaching a class on The Seven Bones of Israel (see my post in February 2017) on the Shavuot just passed I decided to take a break from the ethics project. The Seven Bones idea is an intriguing one and, having taught it twice now, it seemed to me that there is interest in it from both clergy and interested lay students. Its subject is expansive enough to support a (short) book-le...
Read more

13 Feb 2017

Bones of Israel, Judaic Topics
Introduction There are some moments in time that are so powerful, so consequential, that they seem to crystallize, to become matter, to ossify. Time becomes bone. Seven such bone-like moments (and only seven) are found in the Hebrew Bible when it is read in the Hebrew. Those moments are so consequential in human history and in the history of the Jewish people that they are described in...
Read more