The Teachings of Jesus or Beliefs about Jesus?

The latest issue of Discovering the Bible is now online -- The Teachings of Jesus or Beliefs about Jesus?

Which was most important to Jesus – “his teachings” or “beliefs about him”? Today, which do you think is most important to Christians – “beliefs about Jesus” or “what Jesus taught”? How many people think it will be what they believe that will determine their fate after death? But what did Jesus have to say about that subject? In order to find out we must turn to our only sources for what the historical Jesus taught – the Gospels. However, you should be aware of the conditions in the world in which they were written -- before you attempt to understand what they say.

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Archaeologist: Stop Muslim Temple Mount Denial, 'Barbaric' Digs

Dr. Gabi Barkai, senior lecturer at Bar Ilan University and recipient of the Jerusalem Prize for Archaeology, says Israelis must demand that Israeli antiquities law be enforced at Israel's most important archaeological site– the Temple Mount.

"It is the most important site in the world for the Jewish people," Barkai told Benny Tucker of Arutz Sheva's Hebrew newsmagazine in a Jerusalem Day interview, "as well as the most important archaeological site in Israel, and despite all this, Israel has abandoned it. Over the past ten years, the Waqf has taken control, making major changes in the status quo: It has conducted illegal digs, built mosques and the like, and the situation has changed from one extreme to the other." . . . .

Barkai explained that in addition to building mosques on the site, the Moslems clearly have the goal of detaching Israel from its past and Holy Temple connections: "They wish to undermine Jewish ownership and bonds to the Temple Mount. They've built a giant mosque there in Solomon's Stables [under the Temple Mount] and another one nearby – but aside from that, they have an ideological goal which is even making inroads to naïve circles in the west, and it is called 'Holy Temple denial.' They act as if there never was a Holy Temple. This is very very grave; regarding the Holocaust, there are living people who still remember it, but the same cannot be said regarding the Temple…"

"We must demand that Israeli law and sovereignty be enforced on the Temple Mount," Barkai concluded. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

Read complete article at --
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137513
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Ptolemaic Statue and Temple Found

Archaeologists excavating at Taposiris Magna, a site west of Alexandria, have discovered a huge headless granite statue of a Ptolemaic king, and the original gate to a temple dedicated to the god Osiris. In a statement issued by the SCA, Dr Zahi Hawass says that the monumental sculpture, which is a traditional figure of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh wearing collar and kilt, could represent Ptolemy IV, the pharaoh who constructed the Taposiris Magna temple. He added that the statue is very well preserved and might be one of the most beautiful statues carved in the ancient Egyptian style. . . . Behind the temple, a necropolis was discovered, containing many Greco-Roman style mummies. Early investigations, said Dr Hawass, show that the mummies were buried with their faces turned towards the temple, which means it is likely the temple contained the burial of a significant royal personality, possibly Cleopatra VII.
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Ethical Conflicts over Care

Most physicians in a recent survey said they would refer their patients elsewhere for barred services, but 4% would violate hospital policy to provide care. One in five primary care physicians working in religiously affiliated health care organizations has experienced a conflict over faith-based patient care policies, according to a new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The findings, based on a nationwide survey of 446 family physicians and internists, appear to be the first to document how frequently doctors disagree with institutional policies in areas such as
reproductive and end-of-life care, said Debra B. Stulberg, MD, the study's lead author. "It's an issue that patients and we, as physicians, should be aware of," said Dr. Stulberg, instructor in the Dept. of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
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Latest Noah's Ark is a Hoax

Has the real Noah's Ark spoken of in the Bible truly been found? At least two seasoned archaeologists who have made numerous expeditions to Mount Ararat in search of Noah's Ark are throwing cold water on this week's claim the Old Testament vessel has finally been discovered, saying it's a hoax involving wood hauled in from the Black Sea region.
"To make a long story short: this is all reported to be a fake," said Randall Price, director of Judaic Studies at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
"This is not Noah's Ark," adds Bob Cornuke of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute. "This is a fake. It's a fraud and it's of the highest caliber according to what I can assess from the evidence and talking to eyewitnesses and people from Turkey."
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Has Noah's Ark Been Found?

Web sites are buzzing over claims that remains from Noah’s Ark may have been found on Turkey’s Mount Ararat. The finders, led by an evangelical group, say they are "99.9 percent" that a wooden structure found on the mountainside was part of a ship that housed the Biblical Noah, his family and a menagerie of creatures during a giant flood 4,800 years ago.
But researchers who have spent decades studying the region – and fending off past claims of ark discoveries – caution that a boatload of skepticism is in order. "You have to take everything out of context except the Bible to get something tolerable, and they're not even working much with the Bible," said Paul Zimansky, an archaeologist and historian at Stony Brook University who specializes in the Near East - and especially the region around Ararat, known as Urartu. Cornell archaeologist Peter Ian Kuniholm, who has focused on Turkey for decades, was even more direct - saying that the reported find is a "crock."
The quest to find remnants of the Bible's most famous cargo ship goes back to, well, virtually biblical times (or at least back to the time of the ancient historian Josephus). In the Book of Genesis, God tells Noah to build a boat that would be longer than a modern-day football field and more than three stories high. Animals were sent to seek shelter in the ship and ride out a flood that wiped out the entire
world.
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A New Sumerian City Discovered in Southern Iraq

Abdul-Amir Hamdani is the Director of Dhi-qar antiquities office for the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. . . Hamdani states that he found this site on December 30th of 2009. The new site is located in a remote desert about 33 km southeast from the ruins of Eridu near modern Abu Sahrein. Eridu was long thought to be the southernmost of the Sumerian cities, and possibly the oldest city in the region, now this new site revises the map of antiquity. Site Dated To Ur's 3rd Dynasty Exploration of the site has revealed bricks inscribed in cuneiform writing which have been dated to the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2113-2006 BCE).
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New Movie about Branch Davidians

Waco, USA - Kurt Russell, Adrien Brody and Sharon Stone have all signed up to star in new drama Waco. The movie, directed by Stigmata's Rupert Wainwright, tells the true story of the the 1993 incident in Texas when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco And Firearms sieged the compound where David Koresh and his personal cult, the Branch Davidians, were holed-up. It is not known which roles the stars are taking, but Production Weekly reports Kurt, Sharon and Adrien are all on board. Federal agents took action against the cult after reports of child abuse and rape emerged from the isolated compound, leading to a devastating fire within the structure that left 81 people dead and controversy surrounding how the authorities handled the situation. Investigative journalist Lee Hibberd apparently wrote the script and the filmmakers will be advised by documentary maker Michael McNulty, who made Waco: The Rules Of Engagement about the incident. SOURCE

Happy Birthday, Israel

The modern nation of Israel will be 62 years old next week. Many Jewish Americans in the United States remember Israel’s Independence Day, also known as Yom Ha’Atzmaut (or Yom HaAtzmaut). Celebrations are annually held on or around the fifth day of the month of Iyar, according to the Jewish calendar. Many Americans will celebrate on April 19th & 20th.

Read more about this holiday at --
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Modern_Holidays/Yom_Haatzmaut.shtml
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Jesus Didn't Go to Church

The April 2010 issue of Discovering the Bible is "Jesus Didn't Go to Church." Jesus didn't found or attend a church - he went to the synagogue. Understanding the role of the synagogue helps readers understand Jesus and his movement much better. You will find this newsletter, plus all of our 2010 newsletters & more at --
http://www.biblicalheritage.org/DTB/bhc_dtb.htm
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Distinguishing Between Fact, Opinion, Belief, and Prejudice

In today's religious and political environment a growing number of "prejudices" are being mistakenly being labeled as "facts" and "beliefs." I came across a very short paper for a writing course at Colorado State University, which provides some very useful definitions of the above words. The professionally engineered "prejudice traps" that are dominating 30-second sound bites only work on an uninformed audience. Make sure you are able to distinguish between facts, opinions, beliefs and prejudices. Please take a moment to read it at -- http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/co300man/pop12d.cfm
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Religious Belief Exemptions From Healthcare Bill

Religion and healthcare is not a new subject, but it is getting a lot
of attention now. The exemption based on religious beliefs which
allows people to opt out of the requirement to purchase insurance
under the newly signed heathcare bill is creating a great deal of
interest. Below are quotes from an article published in Canada Free
Press:

"The recently signed bill contains a clause exempting certain
religious groups, American Indians, illegal immigrants, and hardship
cases (prison inmates) from the health insurance mandate.

The Amish are exempt because they believe it is their church’s
responsibility to care for the material needs of the members, not the
government or insurance companies. When members of the Amish community
have need of a doctor or a hospital, they get financial help from
their church and neighbors and pay in cash for the services.

According to a reputable Islamic Web site managed by Sheikh Muhammed
Salih Al-Munajjid, Islam’s Council of Senior Scholars have issued
fatwas (decrees) that not only prohibit Muslims from purchasing risk
insurance, the fatwas also prohibit them from working for companies
that provide such insurance or any other form of commercial insurance.

`If the government can tolerate a religious exemption, then it must do
so evenhandedly among religious believers with the same beliefs. This
is sheer favoritism for a certain class of religions, or even for one
religion,' wrote Marci A. Hamilton, a professor and lawyer at Yeshiva
University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York."

You may want to do a search on Google for "exemption certificate under
section 1311(d)(4)(H)."
The source of the above information is: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/21699
- you will also find a link there to download the entire bill from the
New York Times website.
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Prehistoric City Discovered in Syria

A prehistoric town that had remained untouched beneath the ground near
Syria for 6,000 years is now revealing clues about the first cities in
the Middle East prior to the invention of the wheel.

The town, called Tell Zeidan, dates from between 6000 B.C. and 4000
B.C., and immediately preceded the world's first urban civilizations
in the ancient Middle East. It is one of the largest sites of the
Ubaid culture in northern Mesopotamia.

Now archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute
and their Syrian colleagues are studying the town, which sits below a
mound in an area of irrigated fields at the junction of the Euphrates
and Balikh Rivers in what is now northern Syria.

So far, they have unearthed evidence of the society's trade in
obsidian and production and development of copper processing, as well
as the existence of a social elite that used stone seals to mark
ownership of goods and culturally significant items.

The evidence here supports what archaeologists had long surmised, that
the Ubaid people were among the first in the Middle East to experience
division of social groups according to power and wealth.

Read complete article at --
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/06/prehistoric-city-discovered-syria/
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Biblical Heritage Center
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British archaeologist: 125,000 years ago first human settlement began in Oman

A new study by a British archaeologist says that the first human
settlement in Oman began about 125,000 years ago. Dr Jeffrey I Rose,
Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham, UK,
said this during a lecture here yesterday on “Oman at the Dawn of
Time: The Archaeology of Human Origin in Southern Arabia.”

Speaking to Oman local media, Dr Jeffrey said it is commonly agreed by
archaeologists that originally the human expansion began from Africa,
perhaps from Ethiopia or Kenya. But until recently experts believed
that early human species moved from Africa to Australia. According to
this study, in the journey of human expansion, the first modern humans
followed the rivers into Arabia 125,000 years ago, more specifically
Wadi Aybut in Dhofar, in response to improved environmental
conditions.

For years, Dr Jeffrey and his seven-member team were exploring as to
what was the role of Arabia in the human expansion and subsequent
behavioural revolution? When and why did man first leave Africa? “At
long last, after a decade of searching, we found a site in Wadi Aybut
with stone tools that represent the footprints of the human
expansion,” said Dr Jeffrey. Archaeological researches establish that
human race has the same origin.

Read complete article at --
http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/201004095443/Culture/british-archaeologist-125000-years-ago-first-human-settlement-began-in-oman.html
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Biblical Heritage Center
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Pieces of Rare Biblical Manuscript Reunited

JERUSALEM – Two parts of an ancient biblical manuscript separated
across centuries and continents were reunited for the first time in a
joint display Friday, thanks to an accidental discovery that is
helping illuminate a dark period in the history of the Hebrew Bible.

The 1,300-year-old fragments, which are among only a handful of Hebrew
biblical manuscripts known to have survived the era in which they were
written, existed separately and with their relationship unknown, until
a news photograph of one's public unveiling in 2007 caught the
attention of the scholars who would eventually link them. Together,
they make up the text of the Song of the Sea, sung by jubilant
Israelites after fleeing slavery in Egypt and witnessing the
destruction of the pharaoh's armies in the Red Sea.

Read complete story by clicking on --
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_reunited...
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