While we were away for the ETS & SBL Meetings, we offered a "crazy discount" for 10 days only. The response was great! So……we thought we'd repeat the same sale this month! Beginning now and extending through Dec 18, simply enter latkes25 into the coupon code box at checkout, and 25% will be deducted from your total. (Shipping charges will still apply.)

Also, if you order right away, we'll do our best to see that you get your items before the end of Hanukkah. But don't delay! Hanukkah begins Friday evening, Dec 10.

[Note: the 25% discount does not apply to bulk orders.]

Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem during the days of Yehudah the Maccabee. This dedication, which marked a significant victory for the Jewish people, was the culmination of victories in the battle field given to the Jewish fighters by HaShem, who were outnumbered five to one by the forces of Antiochus IV (who also gave himself the title Epiphanes, meaning "deity manifest").

After ascending the throne, Antiochus had installed Jason as the High Priest in Jerusalem, an office which had become entirely political. In time, Menelaus offered Antiochus a greater price for the high priesthood and thus supplanted Jason. Jason was not to be so easily overcome, however. He gathered his forces, seized Jerusalem and besieged Menelaus in the citadel. When the news of what Jason had done reached Antiochus, he took it as a direct act of rebellion against his own authority. As as result, Antiochus marched on Jerusalem, sacked the city, killing thousands of the Jews (some say as many as 40,000), and desecrated the Temple by offering pagan sacrifices on the altar. He further outlawed the religious practices of the Jews, hoping that the Jewish nation would, once and for all, give up their faith and willingly embrace the hellenistic culture and religion.

It was then that Mattityahu the Hasmonean sent forth the call for Jewish fighters to resist, and the military struggle began. Following Mattityahu's death, his son Yehudah (the Maccabee), lead the Jewish troops. According to the stories found in 1 and 2Maccabees, in the years that followed the Jewish troops, though greatly outnumbered, were given the victory over the armies of Antiochus, allowing Yehudah HaMaccabee to cleanse and rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem.

The historical accuracy of this story, however, has long been challenged by scholars. One obvious inconsistency in the story relates to the death of Antiochus IV. In 1Macc the death of Antiochus IV is recorded as coming after the rededication of the Temple (1Macc 6:1–17), whereas in 2Macc, Antiochus' death occurs before the rededication (2Macc 9:1–29). Such a disparity in the record of 1 & 2 Maccabees has led some scholars to the conclusion that one cannot trust the historical reliability of these documents. However, in a significant article written by David Flusser ("'What is Hanukkah?' The Historical Setting of the Hasmonean Temple Dedication" in Judaism of the Second Temple Period: The Jewish Sages and Their LIterature, vol 2 [Eerdmans, 2009], pp. 113–134), he has compiled convincing evidence to show that there is historically reliable data in the texts of 1 & 2Maccabees. Moreover, he has given clear evidence that the notice in 2Macc is correct, and that Antiochus IV died before, not after, the rededication of the Temple. In fact, it was the news of Antiochus' death that emboldened Yehudah to go to the Temple mount in Jerusalem and to initiate the rededication the Temple. While the opening of 2Macc seems to suggest that Antiochus was killed when he tried to overtake the pagan temple of Nanea (2Macc 1.13–16), other sources (see John Whitehorne, "Antiochus" in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1.269–72) give evidence that he died from sickness, perhaps consumption, as recorded in 2Macc 9.

As I read the article and saw the evidence for Flusser's conclusion, that Antiochus died before the rededication of the Temple, the truth of HaShem's sovereign control of earth's history was impressed upon me once again. By the best accounts, Antiochus was not killed in battle, nor did he meet his demise at the hands of an assassin. Rather, the one who arrogantly proclaimed himself to be a deity, who did all in his power to annihilate G-d's chosen people, was struck with an illness and succumbed to its power, an enemy he could not defeat (cf. 2Macc 9.1–29). The death of Antiochus gave an open door for Yehudah to announce the rededication of the Temple, the event which signaled above all others the victory HaShem had given to His people.

The story of Hanukkah offers us a time of celebration in praise for G-d's faithfulness and power. It also is a vivid reminder to us all that we, like our forefathers, must dedicate ourselves to standing for the truth even if the cost for doing so is very high. But Hanukkah also reinforces the lesson that G-d "does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’" (Dan 4:35). Moreover, "The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of Adonai; He turns it wherever He wishes" (Prov 21:1). In our own turbulent times, we may rest assured that today's world leaders, even those who seem to have unending power and control, are ultimately subject to G-d's plans and the outworking of His eternal designs. Our lives are in His hands, and there is no greater security than that!

So as you light the candles of Hanukkah this year, may you be greatly encouraged and may your faith be strengthened!

The annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) were held in New Orleans this year. The ETS convened Nov 18–20 and the SBL, Nov 21–24. The Theme of the ETS was "Personal & Social Ethics." The SBL typically does not have a central theme for the conference, but is divided into many sections dealing with specific areas of study in the broad spectrum of "Biblical Literature."

Caleb and I were privileged to attend both meetings. Each year I volunteer a majority of my time at the meetings to work in the Accordance Bible Software booth, helping to demonstrate the software as well as give technical advice for those running the Accordance Bible Software on a Windows PC (Accordance is native for Macintosh computers). But one of the great advantages of working with the Accordance Bible Software people is that many scholars stop by to see what has been added or to get advice about how to use Accordance to its full capacity. This often gives me the opportunity to talk with these scholars one-on-one about the work they are doing, and even to ask them specific questions in their fields of expertise.

Of course, both Caleb and I took the opportunity to attend a good number of lectures, both at the ETS and SBL meetings. I'll give you just a sampling of a few of the papers we attended:

Two papers delivered by Mark Nanos were, as usual, very interesting: "'Broken Branches': A Pauline Metaphor Gone Awry?" and "Did Paul Observe Torah in Light of His Strategy 'to become Everything to Everyone' (1Cor 9:19–23)?" While we did not agree with some of his conclusions, both papers were well presented and thought provoking. Both of these papers are available on Mark's website: http://www.marknanos.com .

Peter Flint (Trinity Western) delivered a paper entitled "The Contribution of the Biblical Scrolls toward a New Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible as the Text to be Translated." In this paper, Flint introduced the Oxford Hebrew Bible Project [OHB] (http://ohb.berkeley.edu/) in which he is the editor for the Psalms. This project aims to produce a "critical text" of the Hebrew Bible, i.e., the text thought by textual scholars to have the greatest evidence of being original. This is a shift from the standard text now in use (BHS, based upon the Leningrad Codex) and the text being produced by the Hebrew Univ Bible Project (HUB, based upon the Aleppo Codex), both of which are called "diplomatic" texts since they each aim to reproduce a single manuscript. The appearance of the OHB will be a welcomed addition for those scholars working in text-critical studies of the Hebrew Bible. The particular emphasis of Flint's paper was that the Qumran scrolls offer the most ancient exemplar of the original Hebrew text and that a project like the OHB will be able to give the scrolls their proper place in determining the "original text."

Peter Tomson presented a paper entitled "The Genesis of the Christian-Jewish Conflict and the Position of the Didache and Barnabas." In this paper he showed how the Didache and Epistle of Barnabas both give evidence of the early "parting of the ways" between the Synagogue and the emerging Christian Church, the Didache presenting the increasingly marginalized "Jewish-Christianity" and Barnabas representing the emerging "gentile Christianity" which was anti-Judaism. After the paper, I had the privilege of speaking with Jonathan Draper, a Didache scholar who had also come to hear Tomson's paper. I wanted to clarify his understanding of Didache 6:1–3 and particularly v. 2, "For if you are able to bear the whole yoke of the L-rd, you will be perfect. But if you are not able, then do what you can." The opportunity to talk with this leading Didache scholar about his understanding of a specific Didache text highlights one of the major values of these meetings.

A paper written by David Moffitt (of Duke Univ) was of particular interest to me. The title was "P.Duk.inv. 727: New Evidence for the Meaning and Provenance of the Word Proselutos." Proselutos is the Greek word most often used by the Lxx to translate the Hebrew word ger, "foreigner, alien." In this paper, a Greek text on a papyrus scrap was presented, a text which includes the Greek word proselutos. What makes this text so important is that it is dated to 332-330 BCE, the same era in which the Torah was being translated into Greek by the Lxx translators. Moreover, the text originated from Egypt, the very location where the Lxx was being constructed. What is more, the text is clearly not of a religious nature. The word proselutos found in this text is in the plural, and refers to a group of foreigners who were bringing a legal, agricultural dispute to the local ruling authorities. This text, then, presents clear evidence that the Greek word proselutos did not automatically mean "convert" at the time the Lxx was being made. It still retained its common meaning of "foreigner" and should thus be read as such in the Lxx. This bears upon a biblical text such as Num 15:16, "There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the proselutos who sojourns with you." This newly published papyrus text now gives additional evidence that proselutos in here means "foreigner," not "convert."

These are just a few highlights of the papers we heard. We also had opportunities to dialog and interact with well known scholars such as Walter Kaiser, Craig Evans, N.T. Wright, James Charlesworth, Emmanuel Tov, and others as they shared aspects of their current studies.

There was also time to walk the isles of the book display where nearly every major book publisher in the field of Biblical Studies was represented. And (as usual) we came home with an arm-load of new books. Of course, in the evenings we took time to listen to some good New Orleans jazz as well. We even enjoyed gyros in a small restaurant run by Israelis. All in all, the trip to New Orleans was very rewarding.

One final note: after we had boarded the plane in New Orleans and were on our way to Dallas for the connecting flight to Seattle, we realized that we had inadvertently left our hand-held video camera at the New Orleans airport (at the departure gate). We pretty much figured that we'd never see it again. I silently prayed that HaShem might allow us to retrieve the camera. When we arrived in Dallas, we called the New Orleans airport and left a message describing the camera, leaving our phone number. After arriving in Seattle, as we waited for the bus to take us to Tacoma, Caleb received a phone call informing him that the camera had been turned in to the lost-and-found, and that it would be sent to us. We received it two days later! It's a small thing, I know, but it reminded me once again that HaShem is just as much involved in the "small things" as He is in the major events of our lives.

As we come to the end of the fiscal year, we are busy preparing year-end receipts for those of you who have supported our work financially through the year. It is always a sobering task, yet filled with much joy. It is sobering because we recognize the sacrifices people have made in order to help us accomplish this work. It is joyful because it is so encouraging to see how many people have partnered with us to make this ministry possible.

Time and time again we have seen the truth of Hudson Taylor's motto, one which we have adopted ourselves: "G-d's work, done G-d's way, never lacks G-d's support." Your financial donations are a direct answer to our prayers, and are an added confirmation that G-d wants us to continue doing this work.

It seems insufficient simply to say "Thank you," but we hope that you understand just how grateful we are for your on-going support. Together, may G-d bless our efforts for His glory and the glory of His Son, our Messiah, Yeshua.