- Live with Purpose
- Love Unconditionally
- Laugh Often
- Eat Healthy
- Exercise Moderately
WHEN JESUS ATE THE PASSOVER MEAL
Have you ever wondered how Jesus ate the Passover meal the evening before the Passover lambs were killed?
People have asked me this question many times.
Here is my explanation – hope it helps clarify this timing of the story.
Passover in Exodus
Exodus 12:6-8 (Numb. 9:1-5; 28:16; Deut. 16:6)
- Kill on the 14th
- At twilight (between the evenings) – between sundown and sunset
- Eat that night as the 14th begins at evening
- The people were to kill the lamb in the evening and eat it that night
But in Jesus’ time they were sacrificing the Passover lamb late on the 14th (throughout the day) and eating the lamb that night on the 15th. Jesus kept the Passover according to God’s instructions in Exodus, but the Jews had not eaten their Passover lamb by the next morning on the daytime of the 14th. (John 18:28). By the time of Jesus, the Jews were sacrificing their Passover Lambs into the afternoon of the 14th and eating their Passover meal later that evening after sundown on the 15th. So they were eating the Passover a day later than God told them to in the Torah.
How It Changed From the 14th to the 15th
The Exodus Passover was like a home group meeting. This changed when Passover worship was centralized at the Temple and led by the priest and Levites who started sacrificing the Passover lambs at the Temple for the people instead of the head of the household sacrificing them at their home. Plus many of the people were ceremonially unclean so the priest and Levites took their place.
- King Hezekiah – 2 Chronicles 29:20-36; 30:5,17
Called for the centralization of Passover at the Temple. This created a logistics problem because it was impossible for the priests and Levites to sacrifice so many Passover lambs between sundown and sunset on the 14th. As a result, killing the Passover lambs continued through the daytime of the 14th. - King Josiah – 2 Chronicles 35 – same issue
- Ezra – Ezra 6:20 – same issue
Timing of Jesus
By the time of Jesus, in order to accommodate their centralized Passover celebration which extended throughout the 14th, they interpreted “at twilight or between the evenings,” to mean between 3-6 pm. So they are killing the Passover lambs at that time on the 14th and eating the Passover meal later in the evening which would be on the 15th. Jesus did not do this. He ate the Passover meal with His disciples on the 14th when it began at evening time.
There was always a remnant who kept the Torah according to God’s instructions. Jesus connected with one of His followers who killed his Passover lamb at twilight and provided it to Jesus for Him to eat with His disciples as the 14th begin in the evening. In God’s amazing timing, Jesus kept the Passover according to God’s instructions while, at the same time, was crucified at the time, still on the 14th, when the Passover lambs were killed in the centralized Passover celebration at the Temple. This is similar to what happened in the 4th century when Constantine replaced house churches with centralized worship in large basilicas led by professional religious leaders who replaced the father as priest of the home.
THE SHAKING – A Poem about the End Times
From Dr. Booker:
Dear Friends:
On July 12, 2016 the Spirit of God came on me and gave me the following poem. I know it was God because I am not a poet. I have written 40 books, 15 college level Bible courses, and hundreds of articles but never a poem.
Furthermore, these words came to me in only a few minutes. I wrote them down just as they are. When I read the words, I was shocked to realize the poem is written in, what we call, Hebrew Parallelism, like in Proverbs where part B of the couplet clarifies Part A. This had to be from God.
Due to the difficulties we are all going through with the Corona virus, I wanted to release this poem to you to encourage you. Please share with all your contacts and make it go viral for the world to read.
Isaiah 26:3
Dr. Richard and Peggy Booker
THE SHAKING
A Poem about the End Times
by Dr. Richard Booker, July 12, 2016
Things that are must come to an end,
Before things that are better can begin.
*
In time of trouble, will you stand or bend,
Fear not the future for God is a faithful friend.
*
Everything we know is about to change,
But God’s not nervous, He’s forever the same.
*
The world as we know is coming to an end,
But God has a plan, His kingdom is at hand.
*
So pray as a watchman awake and alert,
Love one another and cause no hurt.
*
Serve those around you without pretense,
Minister in the Spirit and don’t take offense.
*
For soon we will hear the shofar blown,
Jesus is coming and it won’t be long.
*
The Lion of Judah, Yeshua is His name,
To make us one with the Father is the reason He came.
*
So let’s all get ready for the coming of the King,
The glory of God He is returning to bring.
Kirk Douglas
As many of you know, legendary actor, Kirk Douglas died at the age of 103. Those of us who are “Senior Citizens” grew up watching Kirk in the movies. Who can forget that incredible scene when the Romans were interrogating the followers of Spartacus and they all stood up and said, “I am Spartacus.”
What few know however, is that Kirk Douglas discovered his Jewish roots by reading the New Testament words of Jesus in Matthew 5. Kirk wrote in his book, Climbing the Mountain, “Some things that Jesus said made more sense in the context of Judaism than Christianity. Of all the things I read of him, the one that influenced me the most was this speech of Jesus recorded by the gospel writer of Matthew.”
If you want to know more about how the words of Jesus touched Kirk’s life, please order my publication, A Hollywood Star, the Torah and Jesus: What a Hollywood Super Star Discovered that Every Christian Should Know.
When God Shows Up
By Dr. Richard Booker
God shows up when people want Him to show up. As the holy Word of God declares, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you …” (James 4:8). When God shows up, things happen. When God shows up His people recognize His holy presence, His holy power, His Holy Spirit. When God shows up He gets our attention. He does the unexpected and the extraordinary beyond our control. Our religious familiarity turns into a holy awe of our holy God.
When God shows up He turns an ordinary bush into holy ground. He starts a fire that cannot be consumed. He turns an ordinary cloud into a pillar of divine guidance by day and a pillar of fire by night. When God shows up a mountain is engulfed with smoke and fire and shakes and quakes at the presence of the Lord. When God shows up He surrounds our enemies with an unseen host of angels. When God shows up He gives us victory against all odds.
When God shows up water turns to wine. The blind are made to see; the deaf are made to hear; the lame are made to walk; the mute are made to speak; the dead are brought to life; the storms are calmed and even the wind and the sea obey Him. When God shows up the mighty wind of His Spirit shakes a building and tongues of fire appear on 120 disciples who changed the world. When God shows up a religion about God turns into a relationship with God. Kingdom life replaces churchianity.
When God shows up the comfortable are disturbed and the disturbed are comforted. Sick people are healed, burdens are lifted; sinners become saints, rebels become righteous, mourning is turned to joy, death and disease turn to life and health, darkness turns to light, worldliness turns to holiness, lust turns to love, greed turns to generosity, pride turns to purity, haughtiness turns to humility, complaining turns to praising, weakness turns to strength, creeds turn to deeds, bondage turns to deliverance, hopelessness turns to hope, stress turns to rest, troubles and trials turn to triumph, defeat turns to victory, gloom and doom turns to glory and gratitude, brokenness turns to wholeness, apathy turns to action, hate turns to forgiveness, poverty turns to prosperity, doubt and unbelief turns to faith; self-centeredness turns to others centeredness.
When God shows up people are consumed by the zeal of God. The holy fire of God burns inside them. They can’t stand in His presence. When God shows up people faint, swoon and fall to the ground, they crawl on the floor, they lift their hands, they shout, they sing, they dance, they shake, they tremble, they weep, they laugh, they speak with other tongues, they prophecy, they hunger and thirst after righteousness, they lay hands on people, they pray, they study, they love, they bless, they share, they do strange things because when the Divine touches the human soul; people are going to respond in unusual ways that can’t be explained by the ordinary.
Religious people can’t understand the presence of God. They criticize and ridicule what they can’t understand. But a person who has had an experience with God is never at the mercy of someone who only has a doctrine about God. We should learn to discern the difference between the Holy Spirit, demonic spirits and the flesh. But we should never judge or criticize people who have had an encounter with God we have not had nor understand.
When God shows up the Valley of Dry Bones turns into the miracle of modern Israel. When God shows up holocaust survivors gathered to their ancient Promised Land defeat millions of their enemies from five surrounding nations. When God shows up the desert begins to blossom like a rose; a dead language turns into everyman’s Hebrew, an ancient capital is liberated in 6 days, anti-Semites turn into Zionists, Jews and Gentiles turn into one new man, people who are black, white, brown, red and yellow turn into people who are color blind because there is no color in the Kingdom of God.
When God shows up, the holy blood of Jesus and the Living Waters of the Holy Spirit wash away the color line, the ethnic line, the gender line, the age line, the cultural line, the political line, the economic line, the social line, the language line, the denominational line and the doctrines line. Like a powerful spiritual tsunami, the overflow of God’s life in us, through us and out of us changes the course of our life and all that is in our path. Nothing is ever the same. When God shows up, everything changes.
THE CHARGE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
While the world is celebrating Halloween on October 31, God was celebrating something so much more important that few Christians know about.
You see, it was October 31, 1917 that the Australian Light Horseman made a miraculous charge across open desert and captured the wells at Beersheba. Why did this charge change the world?
In World War I the British and her allies were trying to liberate the Holy Land (then called Palestine), from the Turks and their German allies. The problem was they had to go through Beersheba to get to Jerusalem. The British and her allies had to go through Beersheba because the water wells were at Beersheba. In World War I the military still used horses and horses need water. But the Turks were in control of Beersheba and had built fortified trenches to protect the city.
Without Beersheba, the British and her allies could not liberate the Holy Land, Israel would not be reborn, Jerusalem would not be liberated and prophecy not fulfilled.
After failing several times to take Beersheba, British and Australian commanders determined that they would make one last effort to attack Beersheba with the Fourth Light Horse Brigade. Australian Lieutenant-General Harry Chauvel gave the command. It was just before dark with just enough daylight to make the charge. If the charge failed, the outcome of the war could have been completely different. Failure was not an option.
The Light Horseman were mounted infantry. They always rode their horses a certain distance and then dismounted to charge their enemy by foot. This is what the Germans and Turks expected them to do. But not this time.
I don’t want to give away the story except to say that the Light Horseman did a maneuver they had never done which so surprised the Germans and the Turks, the Light Horseman were able to capture the wells at Beersheba. During the battle, of the 800 Light Horseman in the charge, 31 were killed, 36 wounded and 70 horses died.
The result of the victory was that was that the way to Jerusalem was open for General Allenby to liberate Jerusalem in December and drive the Germans and Turks from the Holy Land. This also made possible the implementation of the Balfour Declaration on November 2 giving British support for the rights of the Jewish people to establish a state in their ancient homeland. This victory at Beersheba is as significant as the liberation of Jerusalem in the six day war in 1967. Without it, Bible prophecy would not be fulfilled. The victory is being re-enacted each year in Israel to celebrate THE CHARGE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.
There is a great movie about this event entitled, “The Light Horseman.” It won the Australian Academy Awards some years back. It is family friendly. You would be greatly blessed by watching this movie. I am sure you can order it through Amazon.
www.amazon.com/Lighthorsemen-Peter-Phelps/dp/B000CJ2E5I
It is a great way to learn about one of the most important event in God’s redemptive history for Israel and the world.
YOM KIPPUR IN THE TIME OF JESUS
By Dr. Richard Booker
According to the Talmud (Jewish oral traditions put in writing), the destruction of the Temple did not come as a total surprise to the Jewish people. The Talmud records four ominous events that occurred approximately forty years before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. These four events were a warning to the rabbis of the impending doom of the Temple. According to Jewish traditions, all four of the following signs came to pass as recorded in the Talmud (Yoma 39a, b). Here is what happened.
- The Lot marked for the Lord did not come up in the right hand
In Leviticus 16, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest was to present two goats before the LORD. He would then cast lots over the goats to determine which would be offered to the LORD and which would be led into the wilderness as the scapegoat. The goat on which the LORD’S lot fell was offered as a sin offering. (See Leviticus 16:5-10.)
The religious leaders considered it a good omen if the lot marked “for the LORD” was drawn by the priest in his right hand. But according to traditional Jewish writings, for forty years prior to the destruction of the temple, the lot “for the LORD” appeared in his left hand. This bad omen caused great fear of impending doom.
- The scarlet thread tied to the door of the Temple on the Day of Atonement stopped turning white after the scapegoat had been cast over the cliff
Jewish tradition says that the High Priest tied a crimson wool thread around the horns of the scapegoat and sent him off into the wilderness accompanied by a priest. The priest was escorted for twelve miles to a designated place where he pushed the goat over a cliff bearing Israel’s sins. A portion of the crimson thread was attached to the door of the temple before the goat was sent into the wilderness. When the goat was pushed off the cliff and died, the thread on the door at the temple was said to turn from red to white. This was a divine sign to the people that God had accepted their sacrifice and their sins were forgiven.
This sign was based on Isaiah 1:18 which says, “ … though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” Rabbinic writings tell us that for forty years prior to the destruction of the temple, the thread stopped turning white.
- The westernmost light on the Temple candelabra would not burn was a bad omen that the light of the Temple was going to be diminished
Further signs of doom were that the western most light on the temple candelabra would not burn. This was a bad omen that the light of the temple was going to be distinguished.
- The Temple doors would open by themselves
Furthermore, the temple doors would open by themselves. The rabbis saw this as a sign that the temple was going to be destroyed by fire as God’s judgment for their ungodliness. This was based on their understanding of Zechariah 11:1 which says, “Open your doors, O Lebanon, that fire may devour your cedars.”
The obvious significance of these signs is that they began to appear forty years prior to the destruction of the temple. This was when Jesus was crucified. It was a most dramatic way for God to demonstrate that Jesus was the ultimate human reality of the Day of Atonement. His death provided the once-and-for-all forgiveness for sin. “It is finished.” Thank you Lord for your love and mercy!
For more information on the Day of Atonement
and all the feasts, see Dr. Booker’s book,
Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feast
www.rbooker.com
Understanding Israeli Politics
Now that’s an oxymoron. No one can understand Israeli politics.
It is more confusing than American Politics.
But here are some basic facts to help you sort it out.
The Israeli Knesset consist of 120 members. The people vote for parties not for an individual as we do in the US. In order to have a seat in the Knesset, a party must meet the current threshold of 3.25% of the overall vote. The leader of the party decides who will be seated in his party in the Knesset and he or she assigns a ranking to them to determine their place on the list.
The Prime Minister must have at least 61 seats in order to have a majority. Since no party has these many seats, the main party has to have the support and cooperation of the parties that have less representation. This means that the parties with less representation can make demands on the Prime Minister in order to get their support.
While it is expected that the parties want something in exchange for their support, sometimes their demands are extreme and only represent their self-interest and not the national interest for the good of the country. This means that the Prime Minister and the main party is often hostage to the whims and demands of the smaller parties to the detriment of the country.
While the Almighty will decide who will be the next Prime Minister (Daniel 4:17), the President of Israel will talk with the leading candidates and decide which one he thinks has the best chance of forming a working, stable government. He will then give that person the chance to do so. If he or she cannot do this, Israel will go to even a third election.
The recent voting numbers are as follow:
33 seats Blue and White: Liberal led by Benny Gantz
31 seats Likud: Conservative – led by Bibi Netanyahu
13 seats The Joint List: Anti-Israel Arab Party
9 seats Shas: Ultra-Orthodox
8 seats Yisrael Beytenu: Ultra Conservative led by Avigdor Lieberman
8 seats UTJ: United Torah-Judaism – Orthodox
7 seats Yamina: Conservative led by Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennet
6 seats Labor-Gesher: 4.80% – Liberal
5 seats Democratic Union: 4.34% – Ultra Liberal
THE KING IS IN THE FIELD
The Meaning of Elul in the Life of the Believer
By Dr. Richard Booker
We have now entered the Biblical/Hebrew month of Elul. Elul has 29 days and is the sixth month on the sacred calendar and the last month on the civil calendar. It is a month of preparation leading up to the High Holy days of Rosh Hashanah (Yom Teruah–Trumpets) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
According to the Jewish reckoning of time, it was the month of Elul when Moses ascended the second time to Mount Sinai to receive the second set of the Ten Commandments and intercede in repentance for the sin regarding the Golden Calf (Ex 32; 34:27-28). The traditional understanding is that Moses ascended on the eve of Elul and descended on Yom Kippur, a total of forty days.
As a result, observant Jews today seek God with more kavanah(focus and purpose) during the forty day period from the beginning of Elul to Yom Kippur. This is a special time of reflection, prayers, forgiveness and repentance when the people search their souls and seek God with their whole hearts in preparation for the High Holy Days.
In Hebrew, Elul is written with the Aleph, Lamed, Vav and Lamed. It is an acronym for the Hebrew phrase, Ani le dodi ve dodi li which means, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon 6:3). In times past, many of us used to sing our love song to God, “I’m my Beloved’s and He is mine, His banner over me is love.”
Because the name Elul suggest a loving, intimate relationship with our Creator, Jewish sages have likened this forty day period when a king leaves his palace and throne and goes out into the fields to meet his people and relate to them on a personal basis. He is still king, but he has left his throne to be with his people. He is accessible to them and greets them with love and acceptance as one of their own in a way he could not do in his palace. But his presence is only for a short time and he returns to his palace where he is no longer accessible.
To prepare for the king’s coming, in this case the presence of God, the shofar is blown on the first morning of Elul until the morning before Rosh HaShanah, except the shofar is not blown on the Sabbath.
The Encyclopedia of Judaism says that the shofar, “calls upon sinners to repent, awakens thoughts of God’s sovereignty, justice, and redeeming power, and expresses the Jew’s hope that God will before long ‘sound the great shofar’ to herald deliverance and the ingathering of the exiles in the land of Israel.”
Rabbi Wayne Dosick comments that the sound of the shofar “serves as a warning to people to wake up out of their lethargy, to scrutinize their deeds, to improve their conduct, it serves as a prelude to God’s judgment; and it serves as a reminder that one day the Kingdom of God, the time of Messiah, will be announced to the whole world.”
Moses Maimonides, one of the greatest of Jewish sages wrote of the significance of the shofar, “Awake O you sleepers, awake from your sleep! Search your deeds and turn in repentance. … Look at your souls, and better your ways and actions. Let everyone of you abandon his evil ways and his wicked thoughts and return to God so that He may have mercy upon you.”
WOW – this is seriously seeking God. The good news is that the Lord has promised that He will reveal Himself to us if we will seek Him with our whole heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29). God makes this promise because He loves us and wants to have a personal relationship with us. But we must seek Him and want that love relationship with Him.
For those of us who acknowledge Yeshua/Jesus as our King, we recognize that God loves us so much that He left His palace and throne in heaven and came to the field of our planet to reveal Himself to us. He was still God in heaven, but He prepared for Himself a body and entered the human race to be with us, to relate to us on a personal basis. He came out of Himself as one of our own. He was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. We see a clear example of this when God appeared to Abraham in the form of a man in Genesis 18. The idea that God reveals Himself to us in ways we can relate to is seen throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It is NOT an invention of the New Testament writers.
Through the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God became accessible to us on a personal and intimate basis that was not possible as long as He stayed in His palace in heaven. Yeshua/Jesus is our “King in the Field.” Everywhere Jesus went He greeted people with love and acceptance, except for the establishment of His day which refused to accept His announcement that the Kingdom of God, the time of Messiah had come. While the people loved and welcomed Jesus, the establishment crucified Him because He exposed their hate and hypocrisy. But even this was predicted by the prophets in such places as Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Zechariah 12:10, etc.
Because Jesus was perfect without sin, death could not hold Him! After fulfilling the Sign of Jonah, Matthew 12:40, Jesus was resurrected and spent the next forty days teaching and showing Himself to His disciples. Did I say FORTY days? That’s right. The King in the Field spent forty days with His people. He then returned to His palace in heaven where He took His rightful place on the throne next to His Father as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now if that is not enough, here is some more exciting news. Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave us a great promise. He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17).
Yeshua/Jesus promised that He would give us the Holy Spirit who would live in our hearts. The presence of the King in the Field would be with us always. As believers, we do not have to wait for a special month or time of the year for the King to be in the field to greet us. He lives in the field of our heart. He is not just with us; He is in us and we are in Him. The two of us have become one in a spiritual union. In this way, we always have access to our King. But we must prepare the field of our heart everyday by turning away from sin and the cultural bread and circus that hinders our love relationship with our King.
To enjoy His manifest presence living in us we must hear the sound of the shofar of God, the voice of His Spirit, calling us to an ever-deeper relationship with Him. May the King manifest His life, His love and His power every day in the field of your heart.
The Hebraic Roots of America Part 3 of 3
Do you know that America was founded on the Hebraic roots of Christianity and the Laws of Moses?
Dr. Richard Booker
There were three great influences that shaped the Pilgrims and Puritans understanding of how to govern and how to live. All three were based on their connection to their Hebraic-Jewish roots. This is why America should be called a “Judeo-Christian Nation.” If we want to “Make America Great Again” we must rediscover the faith of those who made America the greatest nation in the history of nations.
In this three-part series, you will discover what the Pilgrims and Puritans understood had to be the foundation of the new nation. This information is taken from my book, Christians, Jews and Israel: Standing Together in Troubled Times which you may order from our on-line store.
The Hebrew Language
The third major influence on the Pilgrims and Puritans was the Hebrew language. Since the Pilgrims and Puritans were so connected to the Hebrew people and the Hebrew Bible, they naturally studied the Hebrew of the Bible. They believed that God spoke the world into existence in the Hebrew language and that Hebrew is the language of heaven and the original mother language of all languages spoken by Adam and Eve. Hebrew was not a common language at this time but was the language of the Bible.
Since there were no radio, television, internet or other time stealers, the favorite pastime of the clergy was to study Hebrew. Can you imagine your favorite pastime is studying Hebrew? Many of the leading citizens in the colonies were versed in Hebrew and some were scholars. A number of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had a basic knowledge of Hebrew. Let’s see some examples of this thinking.
William Bradford was the governor of Plymouth and a scholar. He had mastered Latin, Dutch, French and New Testament Greek, but at Plymouth he studied Hebrew by candlelight. Bradford said “that he studied Hebrew so that he might be able to speak in the most ancient language, the Holy Tongue in which God and the angels spoke.” He explained “that he wanted to see with his own eyes the ancient oracles of God in their native beauty.”21
I have a book that shows copies of Bradford’s notes in his own handwriting where he wrote the Hebrew and his English translation below it.
Regarding the exceptionalism of America, Bradford wrote, “Thus out of small beginnings, greater things have grown by His hand Who made all things out of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light enkindled here has shone to many, yea, in a sense our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.”22
On November 22, 2005, Rabbi Howard Berman gave a sermon at the Back Bay Interfaith Community Thanksgiving service and commented, “The Pilgrims were the first to sense that America had a unique destiny in human history … as Governor Bradford wrote, ‘just as one small candle may light a thousand others, and lose none of its own light, so too will we – but few in number – become a beacon for all people!’”23
Puritan leader, Cotton Mather, said of Bradford, “He was also well skilled in history, antiquity, philosophy and theology. But the crown of all was his holy, prayerful, watchful, and fruitful walk with God.”24
The Ivy League colleges such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and others were established for the purpose of educating the Puritan ministers. As such, the Presidents of the Universities were Puritan ministers, and most were Hebrew scholars. Along with their Biblical studies, all of these colleges offered required courses in Hebrew beginning in the freshmen year. They actually studied the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew. In some instances, seniors gave their graduation speech in Hebrew. WOW!
One of the most influential Puritan leaders was Cotton Mather. His father, Increase Mather, was President of Harvard, a Hebrew scholar and also taught Hebrew. Cotton Mather was also a Hebrew scholar beginning his study of Hebrew at age 12. When he graduated from Harvard at age 15, he gave his graduation speech in Hebrew and often used Hebrew phrases in his correspondence. Needless to say, Cotton Mather loved the Hebrew language. He scolded his students for spending more time smoking their tobacco than they did studying their Hebrew.
Yale also had a strong curriculum in Hebrew required of all its students. Yale’s seventh President, the Reverend Ezra Stiles, was such a Hebrew scholar he was called a “Hebraician.”25 While pastoring the Second Congregational Church in New Port, RI, Stiles studied Hebrew with the local rabbis and became so proficient that members of the Jewish community often came to Stiles to translate for them. He dialogued in Hebrew with Jewish scholars from Europe who could not speak English.
He not only read the Bible in Hebrew, he also read the Mishna, the Kabala and Jewish commentaries in Hebrew. During his term at President at Yale, Stiles offered Hebrew five days a week because he wanted every student at Yale, as he put it, “to know something of the holy tongue, lest he be entirely ignorant of the holy language when he got to heaven.”26
Samuel Johnson was the first president of Kings College, later renamed Columbia University. He said that “Hebrew was essential to a gentleman’s education.” He also said, “As soon as a lad has learned to speak and read English well, it is much the best to begin a learned education in Hebrew … the mother of all language and eloquence.”27
Some of the college seals had inscriptions in Hebrew. For example, the Yale seal shows an open book with the Urim and Thumim used by Aaron, the High Priest, in communicating with God. The Columbia seal has the Hebrew name for God and the Hebrew name for one of the angels. Dartmouth has the Hebrew words for “God Almighty” in its seal.
The Hebrew language was so popular that a story was circulated that said certain members of Congress proposed that Hebrew be the official language of the colonies. How I wish that would have passed as I would not have to go to Ulpan to learn Hebrew.
The Pervasive Influence of the Hebraic Roots
The Pilgrims and Puritans connection to the Hebrew people, the Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew language was so pervasive, it influenced their whole lives. For example, the Book of Psalms was the book used for their songs of praise. This is why in 1640, the Psalms was the first book printed in the colonies. It was translated directly from Hebrew into English. The preface to the Psalms contains the first words printed in Hebrew in the colonies. Since there was no Hebrew font available, the printer carved the Hebrew words on wood.
For more information on the Hebraic roots of America, please order Christians, Jews and Israel: Standing Together in Troubled Times. How about getting copies for your family, friends, co-workers and Bible teachers.
