All the gods' birthdays?

 

Someone shared this meme with me this morning. (The red X is my own addition.) It claims that all of these ancient pagan deities were born on December 25th:

• Horus (Egypt)
• Osiris (Egypt)
• Attis (Greece)
• Krishna (India)
• Zoroaster (Persia)
• Mithra (Persia)
• Prometheus (Greece)
• Heracles (Greece)
• Dionysius (Greece)
• Tammuz (Babylon)
• Adonis (Greece) 
• Hermes (Greece)

Problem 1: Neither Egypt, Greece, India, Persia, nor Babylon had a month named "December".

December means "10th month", but the Roman calendar had been divorced from lunar cycles some 5 centuries before Christ, and then months were added in the middle to make the 10th month into the 12th month. All of these cultures used multiple calendars simultaneously. There were solar/astrological months, lunar months, seasonal divisions, etc., but none of them had a month that corresponded precisely to the Roman December.

Problem 2: It's just plain wrong.

Horus' birthday was celebrated in late summer, as was Zoroaster's. Krishna's was celebrated in early summer. There is no historical record of a birthday celebration for Mithras among the ancient Iranians. Osiris' birthday (or rebirth day) was celebrated in the spring.

Evidently, whoever made this meme just made the entire thing up. I haven't checked, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the images on the depicted coins have no connection at all to the names under them.

The Lesson: Stop believing everything you read or hear on the Internet no matter how true it sounds and no matter how badly you want it to be true.

Think for yourself. Do even a tiny bit of research before repeating things. Don't cause the world to blaspheme God's name by repeating lies and hysteria.

A Chiasm in Luke 22 on Yeshua's Betrayal and Prayer

 

Luke 22:31-62 looks like it could be a chiasm centered on the angel encouraging Yeshua in the Garden and bracketed by Peter's betrayal.

- A - V31-34 – Yeshua predicted Peter's betrayal

--- B - V35-38 – Moneybag, knapsack, sword, and cloak. Scripture must be fulfilled

----- C - V40 – Yeshua told his disciples to pray to avoid temptation.

------- D - V41 – Yeshua went away to pray

--------- E - V42 – Yeshua prayed

----------- F - V43 – An angel appeared to strengthen him

--------- E - V44 – Yeshua prayed

------- D - V45 – Yeshua returned from praying

----- C - V46 – Yeshua told his disciples to rise and pray to avoid temptation

--- B - V47-53 – Yeshua betrayed by Judas (treasurer in a cloak). Sword and the priest's servant's ear.

- A - V54-62 – Yeshua betrayed by Peter

A Very Brief Commentary on Obadiah

photo by Imran Shah (https://www.flickr.com/photos/gilgit2/47985761417)

All scripture quotes are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV).

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament and the fourth shortest book in the Bible. The prophecy is addressing the nation of Edom, who are the descendants of Esau. There was a long history of conflict between Edom, Israel, and Judah. Obadiah probably wrote shortly after the conquest and exile of Judah by Babylon, in which Edom actively supported the Babylonian army and even killed many Jews who fled the invasion. You can see where it fits in the timeline of Bible books here. 

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Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?”
Obadiah 1:2-3

That which you hold most dearly is the very thing you must give up for God. Edom refused to let Israel pass because they feared Israel would once again take away their inheritance (remember Jacob and Esau?), but because they refused to risk their inheritance on behalf of Israel, God took their inheritance away anyway.

Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares YHWH.
Obadiah 1:4

It is impossible to escape God's judgment. No amount of money, influence, or political power can save anyone, any nation, or even all of humanity if God decides to destroy them. You can't hide beneath the sea or among the stars. God spoke it all into existence, and he can command it all right back out again.

If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night— how you have been destroyed!— would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out!
Obadiah 1:5-6

God's judgment is complete and thorough. No deed or thought can be hid from him and no possession can be kept from him.

Obadiah doesn't warn Edom to repent. Just as with Pharaoh, Edom had long since passed the point at which they could have repented in order to turn back God's judgment. God is longsuffering and slow to judgment, but if you ignore the prompting of your conscience and the Holy Spirit long enough, forgiveness will no longer be an option. This is what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit: to continually reject his counsel until you can no longer hear it and your condemnation is sealed.

All your allies have driven you to your border; those at peace with you have deceived you; they have prevailed against you; those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you— you have no understanding.
Obadiah 1:7

All nations are ultimately tools of God's will. It's impossible to ally yourself against him because he owns all of your potential allies. He will reward your faithlessness toward him with faithlessness toward you from those you rely on most.

Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.
Obadiah 1:10

He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword. Edom betrayed Israel time and again for 1000 years even though God commanded Israel to respect their borders all that time. This prophecy was fulfilled in the centuries before Yeshua came, as Judah conquered and eventually scattered or absorbed the remaining people of Edom.

But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; do not boast in the day of distress.
Obadiah 1:12

God disciplines those he loves. He destroys those who hate those he loves. Never rejoice or boast over Judah because of their suffering or God will judge you even more harshly than he did them.

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been.
Obadiah 1:16

God has promised severe judgment on those nations that mistreat the descendants of Jacob. The harsher the mistreatment, the harsher will be the judgment. Where is the nation of Edom today? It is "as though they had never been".

But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.
Obadiah 1:17

God has promised that he will always preserve a remnant of the physical descendants of Jacob so that he can fulfill his promises to Jacob. They will repent. They will be restored to the land, and all their enemies will submit to the King of Israel or be erased from history.

Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
Obadiah 1:19

This isn't a reference to Arabs or any other non-Israelite people, but to the descendants of Jacob who were once driven to remote places. God will bring them back and eventually restore them to the full extent of the Promised Land.

The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
Obadiah 1:20

From Zarephat in the north to Negev in the south, God will bring Jacob back from all the nations of the world to possess the inheritance he promised thousands of years ago. This promise of restoration was also given in the Torah, but it was predicated on Jacob's repentance. Fortunately, God also promised that they would repent.

The Ancient Rabbis on the Messiah in Isaiah 53

In case anyone ever tries to tell you that Jewish rabbis have never understood Isaiah 53 as referring to the Messiah...

"The Rabbis said: His name is 'the leper scholar,' as it is written, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted."

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, Folio 98b

"Our righteous Messiah has turned away from us; we have acted foolishly and there is no one to justify us. Our iniquities and the yoke of our transgressions he bears, and he is pierced for our transgressions. He carries our sins on his shoulder, to find forgiveness for our iniquities."

R. Eliezer, Machzor Kol Bo

Maimonides wrote that '[The ancient Jews] believed that leprosy was one of the characteristics of the Messiah, for which they found an allusion to the verse: "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted", that is by leprosy.'

Maimonides' Epistle to Yemen

Philo Did Not Keep a Lunar Sabbath

Lunar sabbatarians like to claim that the ancient Jewish historian Philo kept a lunar sabbath and that it is, in fact, the only kind of weekly sabbath that Philo had ever known.

Here are four quotes from Philo's On the Decalogue that demonstrate he kept the weekly Sabbath on a continuous cycle of seven days, just like we do today. In fact, it appears to me that the lunar sabbath would have been a completely foreign idea to him.

There are in all ten feasts which are recorded in the law. The first, the mention of which may perhaps cause some surprise, is the feast of every day. The second is that held on the seventh day with six days between, called by the Hebrews in their native tongue Sabbath. The third is the new moon which follows the conjunction of the moon with the sun.
The Special Laws, Book II, Chapter XI

Philo wrote that there are six days between each Sabbath. Not sometimes one or two days as required by the lunar sabbath, but six. By listing the new moon after the weekly Sabbath as a separate feast, it also implies that there is no calendrical connection between the new moon and the weekly Sabbath.

After this continuous unbroken feast [of the ordinary day] which has neither beginning nor end, the second to be observed is the sacred seventh day, recurring with six days between.
The Special Laws, Book II, Chapter XV

Philo wrote ordinary days are an unbroken cycle of six days, followed by one day of the Sabbath. Six days and one day. Six days and one day. Six days and one day. Over and over from the beginning of time without break. 

For every seventh day is holy, a Sabbath as the Hebrews call it, and it is in the seventh month in every year that the chief of all the feasts falls, and therefore naturally the seventh year also has been marked out for a share in the dignity which belongs to the number.
The Special Laws, Book II, Chapter XIX

The cycle of months must be interrupted from time to time to keep it in sync with the orbit of the earth around the sun and the agricultural cycles caused by that orbit. The weekly Sabbath, however, is never interrupted, so Philo says "every seventh day" and not "the seventh day from the new moon" or anything like that.

For it is from it that the fiftieth day [Shavuot] is reckoned, by counting seven sevens...
The Special Laws, Book II, Chapter XXX

Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, is seven weeks after the early day of Firstfruits during the week of Unleavened Bread. Starting on the day of Firstfruits, Torah says to count seven weeks and then the next day, the fiftieth day, is Shavuot, the latter day of Firstfruits. Following a lunar sabbath, seven weeks would always amount to greater than fifty days if you count the period between the twenty-eighth day of one month and the seventh day of the next as a single week and less than fifty if you count that period as two weeks.

Addendum: I have also seen lunar sabbatarians appeal to the Jewish Encyclopedia (!?) as evidence that God's weekly Sabbath is based on the phases of the moon. Since the editors and authors of the Jewish Encyclopedia believe that the Bible is a work of fiction and that the Sabbath is a relic of a Mesopotamian moon cult that was only later attributed to YHWH who was a minor Canaanite deity, I wouldn't put much stock in what they have to say on the subject.

Black Widow Encounter at Sukkot

I'm not especially excited about sharing this experience, but when I was searching for information at a critical moment, I had a hard time finding anything very useful. I found page after page of corporate-owned, pharmaceutical-sponsored boilerplate that looked like they were all copied from each other. Some real life stories about the effects, treatment, and aftermath of black widow bites would have been helpful. I was aware that being bitten by a black widow is almost never fatal, but I would like to have had more details on what to expect.

According to various reports, between 2000-3000 people are bitten by black widows in the United States each year, so why is it so hard to find first person accounts? Probably due to search engines giving too much weight to "official" websites, but the more accounts that are published, the more they will show up in searches.

Keep in mind--of course--that I'm not a healthcare professional of any kind. This is an account of actual events as clearly as I can remember them, not medical advice.

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Chiasm on Healing on the Sabbath in Matthew 12:9-14

 This chiasm in Matthew 12:9-14 is centered on the moral hierarchy implied by the fact that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

• V9 - Yeshua went on and entered the synagogue
• V10 - Man with a withered hand
• They asked “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
• V11 - You will rescue a sheep on the Sabbath.
• V12 - You should rescue a man on the Sabbath.
• V13 - He said, “Stretch out your hand.”
• The man’s hand is healed
• V14 - The Pharisees went out and conspired to destroy him

Since the Sabbath was created to restore mankind, it should never be used to prevent that restoration. The Sabbath command of Exodus 20 also implies that the Sabbath was created to restore man's animals.

I found this chiasm during a demonstration at Common Sense Bible Study, but I later realized that it was a much simpler structure than I had initially thought.

For more on chiasms--including how to identify, map, and interpret them--check out The Chiasm Course!