Why December 25? A Jewish Consideration of Birth of Jesus

We have been told by historians that the December 25 Christmas was the Church’s way of covering over and stamping out the celebrations of Saturnalia. However I can find no early sources that say that is what the church was doing. Nor do I find this widely attested pattern on part of the early church. I do see a pattern in modern scholarship. This pattern insists, “The early Christians were just stealing ideas and holidays from pagan culture and incorporating them into the Jesus myth”.

Sayings of the Fathers, Sayings of Jesus

Maybe we expect Paul to echo The Sayings of the Fathers. One section, attributed to Hillel sounds almost exactly like Paul in 1 Timothy 6. In my most recent reading of the Pirkei Avot, I have been noticing many similarities between the sayings of the Fathers and the sayings of my Great Rabbi. Here is […]

The Jewish Roots of Thanksgiving?

Do you know of a holiday that celebrated the Fall harvest and took time to thank God for providing for the people as they settled in a new land?  This holiday is introduced in Leviticus 23:39-44.  It was not celebrated on the third Thursday of November but on the 15th day of the 7th month […]