In this continuing series of Jesus' last week the activities of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple led to the "plot to kill" by a select "mafia-like" gang of priests who are even viewed negatively in Jewish sources.

In this new series of podcasts beginning today, April 8th, five days before Passover on the Jewish calendar, I begin to trace the last journey of Jesus to Jerusalem. Subsequent podcasts will carry us through his crucifixion and the aftermath of both despair and faith, in the future and significance of his message.

Millions of Christians for nearly 2000 years have assumed, based on faulty translations--and frankly, Handel's Messiah--that Jesus is referred to as the Mighty God and Everlasting Father by the Prophet Isaiah...Here is the back story.f You can download a free PDF of the notes here: https://jamestabor.com/JesusGod

A plain historical reading of Isaiah 7 and 8 in context reveals that Immanuel is NOT Jesus or any Messiah--it is Isaiah's Son!

Millions have read the quotation in Matthew from Isaiah 7:14 that reads in the King James Version--"A Virgin shall conceive," and taken that text as predicting Jesus' virgin birth. As it turns out the Isaiah text says nothing of the kind, and has not only been poorly translated, but read totally out of content.

You can download a free PDF of my notes here:

https://jamestabor.com/virginbirth

In this new series on my Youtube channel, to run concurrently with the present series, "Lost in Translation," we work on learning how to spot and identify texts of the Bible, whether Hebrew Bible/O.T. or New Testament, that have been overlaid with what appear to be disjunctive interpolations inserted for polemical reasons. . You can download a free PDF of the notes I use in this video here: https://jamestabor.com/falsepen

Millions sing the old evangelical Christian hymn "I Know that My Redeemer Lives," referring to Jesus. However, the idea comes from Job 19 and it turns out it has been seriously mistranslated in Christian versions of the Bible and the actual meaning is something totally different--but equally amazing! For a free PDF of the notes I used in this presentation you can use this link: https://jamestabor.com/JobRedeemer

Millions for centuries--and into our own time, read Genesis 2 and the creation of Adam from the dust as referring only to his body--but then he receives the "breath of life" from God and becomes a living soul--special and above the animals, who are only beasts who perish. Here is a free link to my notes in PDF form you can download: https://jamestabor.com/AdamSoul Here is a link to my translation of Genesis: https://jamestabor.com/TaborGenesis

The traditional translation of "Den of Thieves" is misleading both in the mouth of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple--but more significant,--in the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah whom Jesus quotes. Here is the back-story on what was really going on, both in the time of Jeremiah and of Jesus. Here is is a FREE PDF download of the texts I cover in this video: https://jamestabor.com/templeslaughter

A Single verse of the Bible--Jeremiah 17:9, has been mistranslated and misapplied to millions over the past two thousand years to imply that humanity is hopelessly lost in sin, desperately wicked--and that means EVERYONE, even those who are living a righteous life. What it really says is quite the opposite? As it turns out, it is the apostle Paul who has shaped the entire Christian world into the idea of the "total depravity " of all humankind. Here is a PDF with the notes I used in the video, which you can download and print out free: https://jamestabor.com/humanswicked

The very first verse of the Bible--Genesis 1:1--which millions can quote by heart--is MIStranslated in most all major versions and all languages--with very few exceptions. The reasons are simple--Marketing and Commercialism. Who would buy a Bible translation that does not begin with "In the Beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth"? In this short exposition I dhow how the original Hebrew has a completely different meaning. It is not a philosophical or scientific statement--but rather a description of the ordering of the chaotic, empty, water covered, wind sweep, wasteland that was Planet Earth, WHEN the "Force of All Forces" (Elohim) begin to bring order out of the random chaos. For my translation of the Book of Genesis see: https://jamestabor.com/taborgenesis

The image of the "Son of Man returning in the Clouds of Heaven" becomes common among Christians to refer to Jesus and his 2nd Coming. However the phrase originates from Daniel 7 in the Hebrew Bible and has nothing to do with the coming of Jesus or any other Messiah figure. Playlist for Prophecy Through the Ages: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIRNAKj50kuuRc5p9l9bSmLgbTWkzyngX

A careful look at Zechariah 14 that predicts a final "battle against Jerusalem" between all the nations of the world, manifestation of the LORD on the Mt of Olives. Christians frequently refer to this and apply it to Jesus as the Messiah. But what does the original Hebrew text in fact say? Here is a free link to my notes in PDF form that you can download and study further; http://jamestabor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Lost-in-Translation-LORD-Not-Jesus-Mt-Olives.pdf Two Youtube videos dealing with all the texts on the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible--and whether ANY of them have been fulfilled: https://youtu.be/gGhsWsjNSa0?si=D7-efObooQGG7Aiu https://youtu.be/gGhsWsjNSa0?si=D7-efObooQGG7Aiu

This is a long and serious study based on a lecture I recently gave to my students in the "Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls" course--which is still open to join. We went through a much neglected text--the WAR SCROLL--found in 1947 and seldom mentioned. As it turns out it is the FIRST grand example of Apocalyptic Predictions, Expectations, and FAiLURE from 100 years before the time of Jesus. It dates to the first century BCE--not long after the period of the Maccabees. It is very much an "Apocalypse," but one that failed to come about! Many of the core ideas resurface in our early New Testament materials--with everything moved forward to the period before disastrous Jewish Roman War (63-73 CE), when all hopes for deliverance were shattered. The translation I use here of the Dead Sea Scrolls is that of Geza Vermes, and you can get a copy at this link: https://amzn.to/3yDHHuw You can also sign up for the course itself and get these and many more lectures and class meetings and discussions. It is never too late to join the course--and you own it for life. Check it out here to get an idea of what is included: On-line Courses: "Jesus & Dead Sea Scrolls” https://mvp-courses.com/tabor-dss

Blast from the past...I gave this lecture in 2007 at an academic conference. Don't miss the Q&A at the end. In these intervening years, although I have further developed these views, by and large I remain in agreement with the position I present here. I thought some of you might enjoy both the speaker and the content--looking back!

Studies of the Armenian "Apocryphal Texts" (i.e. Jewish literature from 200 BCE to 100 CE aka "Pseudepigrapha") associated with the Old Testament have been long neglected in favor of other textual traditions, especially Greek, Latin, and Syriac--and some Hebrew materials from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in the case of 1 Enoch, Ethiopic. See the collections of R. H. Charles, H.F. D. Sparks, and James Charlesworth, for the standard editions in English. In this lecture Michael Stone of Hebrew University offers an overview of what has survived among the Armenians--the oldest Christian community in Jerusalem.

Here we see a very young David Koresh in his defensive mode...this is before his "New Light" Revelation came, making him the Lamb of Revelation, who opens the Seven Seals, a sinful Messiah, fulfilling Psalm 45--the "Rider on the Wbute Horse-, with many wives and children, right before the End Times. George Roden was the son of the previous leaders: Ben Roden, who was then succeeded by his wife Lois Roden.

In this short video I try to put my finger on the single FATAL flaw underlying all modern interpretations of "Bible Prophecy" that plot a countdown of events leading up to the end of the World. The key is a historical reading and understanding of the texts in their original time and contexts. This is particularly the case with the books of Daniel and Revelation. They must be read in the light of events from the Maccabees through the end of the 2nd Revolt in the early 2nd century CE.

For the past 100 years a new form of popular Christian Prophecy belief took over much of evangelical Christianity. This interpretation rendered all the predictions of apocalyptic signs leading up to the end of the world,  "Failure Proof" by a Double "Coming of Christ" idea. This essentially allows for perpetual expectations of the imminence of the End, without facing the failures so common with apocalyptic Jewish and Christian expectations through the ages.

Many Bible readers assume that "Bible Prophecy" refers to the FUTURE--what is called "eschatology." In fact, as the very makeup of the Hebrew Bible demonstrates, such is not the case. Even the book of Daniel, that many would consider quintessentially "prophetic," is not included among the Biblical Prophets.