Month: March 2020

The Mystery of the Passover Wine Revealed:
The Yayin HaMeshumar
By
James Scott Trimm

The Prophet Isaiah writes:

And whereof from of old men have not heard,
nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen
an Elohim beside You, who works for him that
waits for Him.
(Is. 64:3(4))

There is a Baraita on this verse that appears twice in the Talmud once in the Midrash Rabbah and four times in the Zohar.

The following is the Baraita as it appears in the Talmud:

What is the meaning of “Eye has not seen” (Is. 64:3)
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said:
This is the wine that has been kept
in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.
(b.Berakot 34b; b.Sanhedrin 99a)

The phrase “wine that has been kept” in the Hebrew is Yayin HaMeshumar “wine of keeping”. The tradition of the Yayin HaMeshumar runs deep in traditional Judaism. It is the wine that will be served at the Messianic Feast when the Messiah re-establishes the Kingdom of Israel on earth.

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul also quotes, or perhaps we should better say paraphrases Is. 64:3(4) as follows:

But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:9 HRV)

Note that Paul’s citation is influenced by the Baraita as the actual text of Isaiah says that “eye has not seen… an Elohim beside you” but Paul says “Eye has not seen… that which Eloah has prepared for those who love Him.” And the Baraita has “Eye has not seen… the wine which has been kept…”.

Now lets look at Paul’s quote in context:

But we speak the wisdom of Eloah
in a mystery that was hidden
And [that] Eloah had before separated
from before the ages for our glory.
That not one of the authorities of this world knew,
for if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Adon of glory.
But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:7-9 HRV)

When we look at Paul’s context we see an even greater influence from the Baraita of the Yayin HaMeshumar “…a mystery that was hidden and that Eloah had before separated from before the ages… eye has not seen… that which Eloah has prepared for those who love Him.”

It is clear that Paul here must be referring to the Yayin HaMeshumar as his audience is, no doubt, familiar with this Baraita to Is. 64:3.

It is the Yayin HaMeshumar that Yeshua refers to when we read:

And afterwards he took the cup, and blessed,
and gave to them, saying,
“Drink you all of it,
for this is my blood of the New Covenant,
which is shed for many to atone for sinners,
And I tell you, hereafter I will not drink of the fruit of the vine,
until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom
of my Father which is in heaven.”
(Mt. 26:27-29)

The Yayin HaMeshumar is the blood of the New Covenant. At the Passover Sader the wine represents the blood of the lamb. Note that we read in Revelation that Messiah is the lamb slain “before the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8) his blood is the wine kept in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.

In the Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas Yeshua is quoted as saying:

Yeshua said, “I shall give you what no eye has seen
and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched
and what has never occurred to the mind of man.
(Gospel of Thomas 17)

Note that in 1Cor. 1:18-20 the same “wisdom” of which we are later told is “…in the mystery that was hidden … before separates from before the ages… which Eloah had prepared for those who love him.” (1Cor. 2:7-9) is also the “wisdom” which “takes away the wisdom of the wise” in 1Cor. 1:19 quoting Isaiah 29:14. In Isaiah 29:15 this wisdom is the contents of the sealed book (Is. 29:11-12, 14, 18). In Revelation this book is opened by the “lamb as if it was slain” (Rev. 5:6) a lamb slain “before the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8).

This is the wine that will be served at the “marriage supper of the lamb” (Rev. 19:7) the great Messianic Banquet and Passover Sader.

In 1Corinthians, Paul has brought up the Yayin HaMeshumar at the beginning of his letter because he will be addressing this wine throughout his letter. In 1Cor. 5 he will discuss the recent Passover Sader at Corinth. In 1Cor. 11:23-34 he addresses the significance of the Passover and especially being worthy to drink the wine which is the Yayin Hameshumar.

In 1Cor. 15:54 he cites Isaiah 25:8 a passage of Isaiah which immediately follows the description of the Messianic Banquet in Isaiah 25:6-7:

6 And in this mountain shall YHWH of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8: He will swallow up death in victory; and the Adonai YHWH will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for YHWH has spoken it.

Notice that the Yayin HaMeshumar is something which “from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen” (Is. 64:3) elsewhere Isaiah writes:

So shall he sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths
because of him, for that which had not been told them shall they see
and that which they have not heard shall they perceive.
(Is. 52:15)

Thus the “suffering servant” song of Isaiah 53 is the message that “eye has not seen”, it is the Yayin HaMeshumar.

The Midrash Rabbah to Num. 13:2 (500) says:

Because hr bared his soul unto death (Is. 53:12)
and bruised themselveswith the Torah which is sweeter than honey,
the Holy One, blessed be He, will hereafter give them to drink
of the wine kept in its grapes since the six days in the beginning….
(Midrash Rabbah to Numbers 13:2 (500))

Thus Paul writes:

But we speak the wisdom of Eloah
in a mystery that was hidden
And [that] Eloah had before separated
from before the ages for our glory.
That not one of the authorities of this world knew,
for if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Adon of glory.
But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:7-9 HRV)

Not only is the Yayin HaMeshumar the blood of the Messiah, but it is more. It is the “mystery” of which the blood of Messiah is only part:

The Zohar says:

The Tzadik (The Righteous) is the Yesod (foundation) in Yah,
the mystery (SOD) which is the wine which has been kept
in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.
(Zohar; Roeh M’haimna on Pinchas; 3:236a)

There is a clear connection here because SOD (“mystery”) has a gematria (numerical value) of 70 which is also the gematria of YAYIN (“wine”). Just as the Zohar identifies the “mystery” with the Yayin HaMeshumar, so does Paul in 1Corinthians.

For Paul goes on to further identify the Yayin HaMeshumar as follows:

10 But Eloah has revealed [it] to us by his spirit, for the spirit searches into everything, even the deep things of Eloah.
11 For who is the son of man who knows what is in a son of man except the spirit of the son of man that [is] in him? So also, that which is in Eloah, no man knows except the Spirit of Eloah.
12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from Eloah, so that we might know the gifts that were given to us from Eloah;
13 Which also we speak, not in the teaching of words of the wisdom of sons of men, but in the teaching of the spirit, and to spiritual men we compare spiritual things.
14 For the son of man who is in the nefesh does not receive spiritual things, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to know that which is judged spiritually.
15 Now the spiritual man judges all things, and is not judged from man.
16 For who knows the mind of YHWH that he might instruct him? (Is. 40:13) But we have the mind of the Messiah.
(1Cor. 2:10-16)

Paul identifies the Yayin HaMeshumar with the “words of wisdom” (2:13) as well as the “mind of YHWH” or the “mind of Messiah” (1Cor. 2:16) and with the spiritual “gifts” (1Cor. 2:10-16) which he will elaborate upon later in the letter (1Cor. 12-14).

So next time you partake of the cup of redemption in the Passover sader, realize that this cup is symbolic of the Yayin HeMeshumar, the wine that has been kept from the six days in the beginning, the blood of the lamb slain from the foundation which has been hidden and separated and prepared for those who love him. It is not just the blood of the New Covenant, it is the Mind of YHWH and the spiritual gifts that he has prepared for us.

We need your financial support now more than ever! We must raise at least $200 by the end of the day today to prevent our account from going into the negative tonight.

As you know we have been digging ourselves out of a budget shortfall.  As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or GoFundMe.

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Hebraic Stoicism Lesson 1 Handouts

Lesson 2 Handouts

“Prove all things” (I Thes. 5:21)

Is the name “Easter” of divine origin simply because it is found in Bibles, in the King James translation of Acts 12:4—”…intending after easter to bring him forth?” The R.V. renders it “after the passover,” as it is given in the original. In reading lines every honest mind will be able to discern whether or not the celebration of Easter and also Christmas has divine sanction.

The setting of different dates for Easter from year to year is explained thus, in Schaff-Herzog Ency. Of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 2, p. 682:

The present variable time was appointed by early Romanism in amalgamation with the very ancient pagan spring festival to the goddess of the spring. It was fixed on the Sunday immediately following the 14th day of the paschal moon which happened on or first after the vernal equinox.

The Babylonian “queen of heaven,” Semeramis, the wife of Nimrod, was the original imperonation of the heathen goddesses, Astarte and Venus of the Greeks, Juno of the Latins, Ashtoreth, of the Zidonians, Ishtar, of the Babylonians, and Eostre, the goddess of spring, of the early Anglo-Saxons. The Druids held religious festivals in her honor and the sun-god in April, calling it Easter Monath. Hence the careless insertion of the word “easter” instead of “passover” in Acts 12:4 by the King James Translators.

This Ishtar, or Eostre, was worshiped as the goddess of love and fertility, and as the life of nature. In Babylonian mythology this “queen of heaven” was worshiped as the goddess of the sexual impulse. In Hasting’s Ency. On Religious Ethics, p. 117, we read of these ancient “easters”:

A spring feast was celebrated. These occasions were marked with great sexual license.

This is the vile phallic worship referred to in Isa. 57:5-8 and Ezek. 16:17. The “groves” connected with “high places” that Israel so frequently “went whoring with” (Ps. 106:28-39) were the images and places where these filthy “queen of heaven” festivals were carried on. The word “groves,” found forty times in the KJV English, comes from the Hebrew word asherah and is always associated with the worship of Ashtoreth, alias Ishtar, Eostre, the goddess of spring, Easter.

The so-called “Lent season” is of purely Babylonian origin. The word “Lent” came from the Saxon word “Lenct”, meaning “spring.” Pagan Mexicans also celebrated forty days in April. Forty days in the vernal equinox in April was celebrated by the devil worshippers of Koordistan in honor of the sun-god. This was brought from Babylon where 2000 B.C. It originated in the weeping for Tammuz, the supposed reincarnation of Ishtar’s (o.e. Semeramis’) husband (Nimrod). In the spring, his death and reappearance was celebrated. A time of mourning was followed by one day of joy. God condemned Israel’s partaking in this celebration as given in Ezek. 8:13-14:

He said to me, “turn you yet again and you shall see greater abominations that they do.” Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the House of YHWH which was toward the north, and behold there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Modern Easter Customs

One may well ask, What connection have buns, eggs, rabbits and new clothes with the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah? The origin of modern “hot cross buns” is sufficiently explained in Jer. 7:18; 44:17-19:

The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger,

Surely God’s anger is still being provoked when believers take up these pagan customs in connection with the resurrection of His beloved Son.

The custom of giving eggs in April can be traced the philosophy and theology of the Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans, among whom the egg was an emblem of the universe—the work of the Supreme Being. The dyeing of eggs can be traced to the Chinese. Eggs were the sacrificial emblem of the Druids. Rome made the egg to become the consecrated emblem of Messiah’s resurrection. Pope Paul V taught people to pray at Easter:

Bless O Lord, we beseech thee this thy creature of eggs that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ancient Babylonians believed an egg fell from heaven into the Euphrates river and the fishes rolled it to the shore where the doves hatched out “the Queen of Heaven”, or Ishtar. Hence the egg became a symbol of Ishtar, the licentiously worshiped goddess of the ancients, and is used today by deluded unthinking Christendom in its celebration of Easter. What ungodly travesty!

The rabbit fad at Easter time can be traced back to pagan Germany. Children were told that if they were good, a white hare would steal into the house while they were asleep and secrete any number of beautifully colored eggs in odd corners of the house. Here originated the modern “Easter egg hunt” provided for innocent children.

The hare, from ancient times was a symbol of the moon (the consort of the Sun Venus or Ishtar), it being a nocturnal animal. The hare is the only rabbit born with its eyes open. The Egyptian word for hare is “un”, meaning “to open”. Thus the hare was associated with the opening of a new season, spring, in April, at the vernal equinox. The hare and eggs were mutually symbolical in Egypt of the opening of their new year, at which eggs were ceremoniously broken.

But from where did the custom of wearing new clothes at Easter come from? Answer: In early England it was considered unlucky not to wear some new article of clothing at Easter time.

Lastly, what about Easter sun-rise services? Do they too come under divine condemnation? We need only look to the criticism of the Tenach itself. When Israel took to the idea of “sunrise services”, God expressed His disaproval in Ezek. 8:15-18:

Turn you yet again and you shall see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the House of YHWH and behold, at the door of the Temple of YHWH between the porch and the alter, were about five and twenty men with their backs to the Temple of YHWH and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east… and though they cry in my ear with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Reading this in the Tanak and knowing the sun-god, Ba’al, or Tammuz, the “husband-son” of Semeramis (Ishtar) has been given idolatrous homage from the very beginning of all idol worship, the sincere follower of YHWH will have no part with a Messiah rejecting world in seemingly innocent and sentimentally “beautiful” Easter sunrise services or in any and all Messiah-deflecting customs which are of proved, HaSatan inspired, pagan origin.

“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
(Eph. 5:11).

The Torah reminds us:

“You shall not follow a multitude to do evil”
(Ex. 23:2)

And as Yeshua himself said:

“That which is highly esteemed among men is abominable in the sight of Elohim”
(Luke 16:15)

And as Paul writes:

“Be you not conformed to this world but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may know what is that good and acceptable and wholehearted will of G-d.”
(Rom. 12:2)

As you know we have been digging ourselves out of a budget shortfall.  As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by paypal to donations@wnae.org.

And don’t forget to join the conversations at the NazareneSpace Social Network

Click Here for Handouts

(Click Here for Hebraic Stoicism Lesson 1)

What do you Mean “Church”?
By
James Scott Trimm

There has been a great deal of confusion over the years over what the “church” is. Some have taught that the Church is a new entity which replaces Israel. Others have taught that the Church is a new body which is totally independent of Israel. Still others have taught that the Church and Israel are two different but overlapping entities. With all of the misconceptions about the identity of the “Church” the time has come to set the story straight and reveal what the “Church” really is.

The English word “Church” comes originally from the Old English word KIRKE. The Old English word KIRKE was the word the Anglo-Saxons used to refer to their pagan places of worship. When they became Christianized the Anglo-Saxons continued to call their places of worship KIRKES and as the language evolved “Churches”. You may have
heard that the word “Church” originally referred to the people and later came to refer to the building. This is not true. The word “Church” originally referred to the building and later came to refer to the people. Moreover the word “church” is of pagan origin

Now if you look up the English word “Church” in Webster’s dictionary you will find the following meanings:

1. a building set apart or consecrated for public worship, esp. one
for Christian worship.

2. All Christians as a whole.

3. A denomination of Christians.

In short a “church” is either a building or a group of Christians.

Now wherever we see the English word “church” in an English Bible we would expect the underlying Greek word would be a Greek word that also means “a group of Christians”. Since the English uses such a technical theological term one would expect that the Greek has also used a technical theological term. But the reality is that the Greek word that appears wherever the English has “church” is not a technical theological term and DOES NOT mean “a group of Christians” at all. That’s right, a technical theological term of pagan origin meaning “a group of Christians” has been inserted in your English Bible despite the fact that the corresponding Greek word is not a technical theological term and does not mean the same thing as the word “Church”.

The Greek word that appears where our English Bible’s have “church” is EKKLESIA. EKKLESIA is just the Greek word for “assembly”. Although it comes from a root meaning “to call out” there is no special theological significance to this word. In fact this is the same Greek word which was used for “assembly” by the classical Pagan Greek writers. Inscriptions in ancient Greek auditoriums where pagan ritual dramas were performed by the Bachus cult have the audience section inscribed with the sign “EKKLESIA”. This same Greek word EKKLESIA is used throughout the Greek Septuagint translation of the Tanak as the word for “assembly”. There are also many places where the Greek word EKKLESIA appears in the NT but which the KJV and other translators did NOT translate the word as “church”. This same Greek word is even used in Acts 19:32-41 to describe an unruly mob, yet here the translators suddenly translate
the word as “assembly” rather than “church”.

There is therefore no such thing as the “church” because the Greek word translated “church” does not mean “church” at all but “assembly”.

Now there are some who claim that the “Church” was a new entity born in Acts 2 at Pentecost of 32 C.E. . However if we examine the events of Acts 2 we find that at that event persons were “added to” the “church” (Acts 2:47) which means that the “church” had to have already existed at that time. If we turn to Acts 7:38 we see that it speaks of Moses as “he that was in the church in the wilderness”. Certainly this “church” could not have been a new “New Testament” entity.

Now while the term “church” is a mistranslation for a word simply meaning “assembly”, there is an entity which is commonly referred to as “The Assembly” in the New Testament. Let us examine the Scriptures and determine what the true identity of this “Assembly” is.

To begin with we must understand that this Assembly is also known as the “Body of Messiah” as we read:

“And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the
preeminence.”
(Col. 1:18 – KJV)

“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church,
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
(Eph. 1:22-23 – KJV)

Now one may ask what “Assembly” is the allegorical Messiah? To find the answer to that question lets look at Matthew 2:14-15:

“When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and
departed into Egypt:
And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken of the Lord
by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. “
(Matthew 2:14-15 – KJV)

Now here Matthew is citing a prophecy in Hosea 11:1 and applying it to Messiah. Now let us go back and look at this prophecy in Hosea 11:1 in context:

“When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
and called my son out of Egypt.”
(Hosea 11:1 – KJV)

Here Hosea is referring to Israel as the son who is called out of Egypt. This points us back to a passage in the Torah:

“And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go,
behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.”
(Ex. 4:22-23 – KJV)

From these two passages we learn that Israel is the firstborn son of Elohim who is called out of Egypt. However in Matthew it is Yeshua the Messiah who is called up out of Egypt and in Col. 1:18 Messiah is the “firstborn”. Moreover Hebrews speaks of the “church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23 – KJV).

Thus Israel is allegorically equivalent to the Messiah. There are some very important reasons for this allegorical relationship:

* Both are the “firstborn Son of Elohim”.

* Both made a major impact on the world.

* Both were born through a biological miracle on their mother’s womb.

* Both were taken into Egypt to save their lives.

* Both were called up out of Egypt.

* Both were despised and rejected by men.

* Rome attempted to destroy them both.

* Both are resurrected.

Thus Israel is the allegorical “Body of Messiah”. Moreover in the Tanak, Israel is commonly called “The Assembly of Israel” and wherever the phrase “The Assembly of Israel” appears in the Tanak the Greek LXX has “EKKLESIA of Israel”.

The so-called “church” which is the “Body of Messiah” is in reality “the Assembly of Israel”. Yeshua did not come to create a new religion, but to be Messiah of the old one. Wherever your English New Testament refers to a “church” (i.e. a group of Christians) the Greek has “EKKLESIA a term which commonly refers to the “Assembly of Israel”. The “Church” as most Christians have understood it never existed. All of the passage people have thought were talking about the “Church” were actually talking about the Assembly of Israel, not Christianity, but the Nazarene sect of Judaism.

DWe must raise at least $200 by the emd of the day today (7/11/2024)or our account will go into the negative tonight and start a chain reaction of returned items and fees.

I know we are living in uncertain times, but now more than ever, we need your help.   Elohim has taken away sports, shut down movie theaters, shut down concerts, shut down the economy, and even the gatherings of organized religion. Does He have your attention yet? One thing the news media has not reported is that not only is toilet paper, hand sanitizer and food flying off store shelves… so are Bibles! All the distractions are gone. Take this time to study the Scriptures and focus on the Creator and your family.

As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me.

Click HERE to donate

And don’t forget to join the conversations at the NazareneSpace Social Network

Is the “Last Supper” in John the “Last Supper” in the Synoptics?
By
James Scott Trimm

In the Synoptic Gospels we read:

Matthew 26:17 “Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread…”
Mark 14:12 “And on the first day of Unleavened Bread…”
Luke 22:7 “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread…”

But in John we read:

John 13:1 “Now before the feast of Passover…”

Some have seen this as evidence that John is not depicting a Passover Sader, but another meal the day before the one recorded in the synoptic Gospels.

While there are many internal evidences that all four accounts are accounts of a Passover Sader, the simplest proof that they are all the same event/meal is by comparing them.

In the synoptic gospels Matthew and Mark relate to us Yeshua’s revelation that one of the twelve would him (Matthew 26:20-25 & Mark 14:17-21) which parallels the account in John 13:21-35.

The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:30-35; Mark 14:26-31 and Luke 22:31-38) contain accounts parallel to John (John 13:36-38) of Yeshua forewarning Kefa (Peter) and the other disciples that they would fail him in his final hours before the cock crows (Matthew. 26:34; Mark 14:30 & Luke 22:34 & John 13:38)

Then after a lengthy discourse by Yeshua (recorded in John chapters 14-17) on Psalm 118 (inspired by the traditional reciting of Psalm 118 at the Seder, the “hymn” (Matt. 26:30; Mk. 14:26).

Most importantly, both the synoptic gospels (Matthew 26:1f; Mark 14:32f and Luke 22:39f) and John (18:1f) concludes with the whole group going to the Garden of Gathsemane, where Yeshua is arrested.

So there can be no doubt that these are a accounts of a single meal/event.

So how can these be the same event? Does John 13:1 contradict the synoptic gospels?

The answer is no. There are several variables that have to be considered.

To begin with there is and was conflict as to just what “Passover” is. Some understood “Passover” to simply be the Passover lamb as a sacrifice and a meal. Others understood “Passover” to also refer to the 14th of Nisan/Abib as a “Moed” (appointed time) as a Feast Day immediately preceding the seven day “Feast of Unleavened Bread”, creating an eight day festival complex.

By the first century it had also become common to refer to the Feast of Unleavened Bread as “Passover” or to those who understood this to be an eight day festival of two back to back feasts, the whole eight days as “Passover”.
We must add to this that the Hebrew phrase used in the DuTillet Hebrew manuscript of Matthew is  וביום הרשון which Hugh Schonfield translated “the day before” in his 1927 translation of the DuTillet Hebrew text. The word רשון usually means “first” but in some places it means “before” (Number 6:12; Joshua 8:33b and 1Kings 13:6, for example, where the KJV translates “before”).

In fact the word might well be translated “foremost” or in this case “foremost day” which reaches to the ambiguity as to whether the “foremost day” of “Passover” or “Unleavened Bread: is the 14th of Nisan or the 15th of Nisan.

The same ambiguity exists in the Aramaic word קדמיא used in the Aramaic Gospels.

All four of the Gospels could be translated either “the first day” or “the day before”.

Therefore the variation between “first day” and “day before” is due to ambiguity of the text. A simple examination of the course of events, makes it clear that both John and the Synoptic Gospels record the same event/meal commonly known as the “Last Supper” as the same Passover Seder in all four Gospels.

Donations this month have been lower than they have been in years! We must raise at least $400 today to clear the bank tonight!

I know we are living in uncertain times, but now more than ever, we need your help.   Elohim has taken away sports, shut down movie theaters, shut down concerts, shut down the economy, and even the gatherings of organized religion. Does He have your attention yet? One thing the news media has not reported is that not only is toilet paper, hand sanitizer and food flying off store shelves… so are Bibles! All the distractions are gone. Take this time to study the Scriptures and focus on the Creator and your family.

As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by paypal to donations@wnae.org.

And don’t forget to join the conversations at the NazareneSpace Social Network

Does the Greek Word Artuo in the “Lord’s Supper”
Prove it Was not a Passover Sader?
By
James Scott Trimm

Some have argued that the so-called “Lord’s Supper” was not a Passover Sader based on the appearance of the Greek word “artuo” in the Greek accounts of the “Last Supper” (in passages like Matt. 26:26) in the Gospels, proves that this was not a Passover Sader. This is simply not true.

Artuo is a Greek word with a very broad scope of meaning. Not only can it mean “bread” leavened or unleavened but it can even refer to any kind of food (as in the Greek of Lk. 15:17; 2Thes. 3:8 etc.) so its use does not indicate whether the bread was leavened or unleavened. For proof of this broad use see the word artuo in the GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND OTHER EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE by Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich.

Artuo is also the Greek word that is used to translate the Hebrew word lechem in the ancient LXX Greek Tanak (for example in Is. 65:25 where the Hebrew has lechem and the Greek translates artuo).

The Hebrew word lechem (Aramaic: lachma) also has broad meaning and can refer to either leavened or unleavened bread or even any other kind of food (as in Is. 65:25). In fact the traditional blessing for the unleavened bread used at the Passover Sader to this day is:

Baruch ata YHWH, Eloheynu Melech haolam,
hamotzi lechem min haaretz.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the universe
who brings forth bread from the earth.
So even at the Passover sader, the unleavened bread is called lechem (Aramaic lachma and Greek artuo).

Donations have been very low over the last two months. We must raise at least $115 by the end of the day today (4/24/24) to keep our account from going into the negative tonight and starting a cascade of returned items and fees!

I know we are living in uncertain times, but now more than ever, we need your help.   Elohim has taken away sports, shut down movie theaters, shut down concerts, shut down the economy, and even the gatherings of organized religion. Does He have your attention yet? One thing the news media has not reported is that not only is toilet paper, hand sanitizer and food flying off store shelves… so are Bibles! All the distractions are gone. Take this time to study the Scriptures and focus on the Creator and your family.

As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or GoFundMe

Click HERE to donate

And don’t forget to join the conversations at the NazareneSpace Social Network

When was Yeshua Buried? Insights from the Hebrew and Aramaic
By
James Trimm

Luke 23:54 says in the Aramaic of the Old Syriac version: “And it was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was dawning [NOGAH] (Strong’s Aramaic #5053)” However the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark say “When it was evening” (Matt. 27:57; Mark 15:42) “the day before the Sabbath (Mk. 14:42)

Lets look at this Aramaic word NOGAH. According to Charles Cutler Torrey in his monumental work “Our Translated Gospels” this word can mean either “as it dawned” or “and before the dawn” (p. 21)

Torrey elaborates:

[NOGAH] designates ordinarily the time between the close (sunset) of one day and the dawn of the next day, and may apply either to the entire time or to any part of it…. the time intended could equally well be midnight, or any hour before or after it. The same idiom precisely, using the same word… is found in classical Syriac. In the Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite, ed. Wright, p. 22, line 9, it designates the whole “night between Friday and Saturday.” In Bedjan’s Acta Mart. et Sanct., IV, 579 f., the time is “at midnight”; ibid., 629, “at the eleventh hour of the night.”
(Our Translated Gospels by Charles Cutler Torrey; 1936; p. 25)

In fact NOGAH is also the word for our planet Venus, known as both the Evening Star and the Morning Star, as it is visible only in the evening (early night) or morning (the end of night) due to it’s being closer to the Sun than the Earth.

Professor Marcus Jastrow in his Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature (p. 873) gives one of the definitions of NOGAH as “to get dark, to be belated.” He gives these examples of this usage of NOGAH in the Aramaic of the Talmud:

“night set in (NOGAH), and no food was brought to them.”
(b.Taan. 24a)

“the reason why I am late (NOGAH)”
(b.Shabb. 10a)

So while the word NOGAH is commonly translated as “dawn” it can also refer to anytime after it gets dark in the evening and up to dawn as well.

In context this was clearly the day before the annual Sabbath at the beginning of Passover. This is clear from the Hebrew (Du/tillet and Munster) text of Matthew 27:62 which says “Now on the next day, which was following the search for leaven.”

Donations this month (April 2025) have been lower than they have been in years! And bills are due!!!

As you know we have been digging ourselves out of a budget shortfall.  As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by the ling below thru Paypal, Zelle, GoFundMe, Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Click HERE to donate

And don’t forget to join the conversations at the NazareneSpace Social Network

Yeshua’s Passover Appearance to Ya’akov
By
James Scott Trimm

We read in 1Corinthians:

[1] Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
[2] By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
[3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
[4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
[5] And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
[6] After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
[7] After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
(1Cor. 15:1-7 KJV)

In his Jewish New Testament Commentary, David Stern writes of 1Cor. 15:7:

The appearance to Ya’akov (James), …is not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament but is reported in one of the apocryphal books, the Gospel according to the Hebrews…
(Jewish New Testament Commentary by David Stern 1Cor. 15:7)

What is the Gospel according to the Hebrews? The Gospel according to the Hebrews was an ancient, lost, apocryphal gospel which was used by the ancient Nazarenes, the original followers of Yeshua as Messiah.

The Third Century “Church Father” Eusebius wrote of this document:

“And among them [doubted books] some have placed the Gospel according to the Hebrews which is the especial delight of those of the Hebrews who have accepted Messiah.”
(Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 3:25:5)

When speaking of the Ebionites, Epiphanius calls GH “their Gospel” (Pan. 30:16:4-5) and Jerome refers to GH as “the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use” (On Mat. 12:13). The actual document has been lost to history, but about 50 quotations and citations of this document are preserved in quotations and citations from the so-called “Church Fathers” and other commentators even into the middle ages.

The twentieth Century Scholar Hugh Schonfield wrote of this lost gospel:

“The Gospel according to the Hebrews is a literary outlaw with a price on its head; but in spite of the scholarly hue and cry it still evades capture. Neither monastic libraries nor Egyptian rubbish heaps have so far yielded up a single leaf of this important document….
For behind Hebrews lies the unknown potentialities of the Nazarene tradition, which may confirm or contradict some of the most cherished beliefs of Orthodox Christianity. It is useless for certain theologians to designate Hebrews as “secondary” on the evidence of the present fragmentary remains preserved in quotation. …
Judged by ancient testimony alone it is indisputable that Hebrews has the best right of any Gospel to be considered a genuine apostolic production;…
Here is obviously a most valuable witness, perhaps the most valuable witness to the truth about [Yeshua]… whom even a jury composed entirely of orthodox Christians could not despise, and who ought to be brought into court. But the witness is missing, and all that we have is a few reported statements of his taken long ago…
…it may be argued that there has been dependence not of ‘Hebrews’ on the Synoptics but vice versa– that ‘Hebrews’ was one of the sources on which one or more of them drew.”
(Hugh Schonfield; According to the Hebrews; 13-18)

The Fourth Century “Church Father” Jerome cites an account of Yeshua’s “Last Supper” Passover Seder in the Gospel according to the Hebrews as follows:

Also the gospel called according to the Hebrews, recently translated by me into Greek and Latin, which Origen often uses, says after the resurrection of the Savior: Now the Lord, when he had given the cloth to the servant of the priest, went to Ya’akov and appeared to him. (for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drank the Lord’s cup until he should see him risen from among them that sleep). A little further on the Lord says, Bring a table and bread. And immediately it is added, He took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to Ya’akov HaTzadik and said to him, My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of Man is risen from among them that sleep.”
(Jerome; On Illustrious Men, 2)

Here we have preserved for us this ancient Nazarene account of Yeshua’s appearance to Ya’akov which Paul had referenced in 1Cor. 15:7, so that we as Nazarenes of the restoration may at Passover reflect upon this new light which we have upon Yeshua’s Seder and his resurrection.

Donations have been very low over the last two months. We must raise at least $115 by the end of the day today (4/24/24) to keep our account from going into the negative tonight and starting a cascade of returned items and fees!

As you know we have been digging ourselves out of a budget shortfall.  As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or GoFundMe.

Click HERE to donate

And don’t forget to join the conversations at the NazareneSpace Social Network

Is there a Contradiction in How Judas Died?
By
James Scott Trimm

Recently an anti-missionary claimed that there is a contradiction in the Scriptural accounts of the death of Judas Iscariot. On the surface there is an apparent contradiction between Matt. 27:5 and Acts 1:18

And he cast the thirty pieces of silver into the Temple, and hanged himself with a halter.
(Matt. 27:5)

This is he who purchased for himself a field from the reward of sin and fell on his face upon the ground and burst from his middle, and all his bowels poured out.
(Acts 1:18)

To begin with, it is important to note that it was not customary to detach the body of a hanged man down from a tree before burial, because the tree itself was felled and buried as well, and to avoid contact with the dead body (which is unclean) it was unnecessary to detach the body before felling the tree.  We read in the Torah:

And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of Elohim;) that your land be not defiled, which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance.
(Deut. 21:22-23).

The Hebrew says  כִּֽי־קָבֹ֤ור תִּקְבְּרֶ֙נּוּ֙  literally, “for burying you shall bury him/it.” 

The use of a verb with its own infinitive is a common idiom of the Hebrew language by which a verb is amplified.  However the Tenth rule of Eliezer’s Baraita of Thirty Two Rules of interpretation is “davar shehu shanui” meaning “repetition brings out a point.”  In this case the repetition of the verb is taken by the Talmud to teach us that the tree is felled and also buried:

Our Rabbis taught: [Then thou shalt hang him on] a tree: this I might understand as meaning either a cut or a growing tree; therefore Scripture states, Thou shalt surely bury him: (literally “burying you shall bury”) [thus, it must be] one that needs only burial, so excluding that which needs both felling and burial. R. Jose said; [It must be] one that needs only burial, thus excluding that which requires both detaching and burial. And the Rabbis? — Detaching is of no consequence.
(b.Sanhedrin 46b)

In fact, due to purity laws discouraging contact with a corpse, rather than detach the corpse at all, it was the custom to cut the tree down, corpse and all.  Maimonides comments on this custom saying that the tree was cut down and buried with the body:

In order that it should not serve as a sad reminder,
people saying: “This is the tree in which so and so
was hanged.”
(Maimonides, Sanhedrin, XV, 9)

Y’hudah (Judas) hanged himself with a halter (Mt. 27:5).  By the time his body was discovered, his belly was either distended or bloated.  Following the normal custom, the tree in which he hanged himself was cut down, with his body still attached, with intent of burying them both together.  When the tree was cut down he fell on his face upon the ground and burst from his middle, and all his bowels poured out (Acts 1:18).

We need your help today! Donations have been low, and bills are due!

As you know we have been digging ourselves out of a budget shortfall.  As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.

If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me

Click HERE to donate

And don’t forget to join the conversations at the NazareneSpace Social Network