I just posted a referral to judahgabriel.blogspot.com after Judah helpfully noted that someone should get the Complete Jewish Bible onto biblegateway.com and other online Bible sites.
The internet is full of people with many opinions.
Right after I suggested people might want to read Judah’s blog, he posted a critique of the Jewish calendar (saying it is pagan because they picked up the names of months from Babylon).
His critique makes the kind of naive error often found in Two-House and Hebraic Roots circles. First, he misunderstands certain details of the calendar (such as why Rosh haShanah would be considered a new year). Second, he rejects the idea that Judaism is a community and that we all need to follow community standards and not make our own standards. Third, he assumes that any mixing with pagan terminology makes something tainted with impurity (never mind that the Bible uses pagan mythological references — Ps. 48:3 (vs. 2 in Chr. Bibles) calls Zion Zaphon’s peak (in the Hebrew, but not in most translations) with Zaphon being Baal’s mountain in Syria, and check out Leviathan and Rahab in a concordance for more examples, just to name a few).
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I appreciate Judah and his contribution. I do not discount his writings because we disagree about these issues. But neither did I intend to endorse his blog. Rather, we should read everything critically.
Meanwhile, Judah, I challenge you to take in the Jewish perspective. You might be surprised at the beauty of Judaism if you try it.
Derek
Messianic Jewish Musings 