The "Y" Team

Learning about the Jesus of history , the one we call Yeshua , transforms our understanding of the one over two billion people today call Jesus Christ . I have been researching and studying the Jesus of history and his words from English translations, Greek manuscripts and reconstructed Hebrew texts for over 30 years now with scholars, professors, rabbis, ministers and a lot of sincere students of the Bible. Over the years I created guidelines and models for the people that I study with to follow and use when we gather to study the words of the Bible. They make our Bible Study gatherings very different from other Bible study groups . Below are three guidelines that have proven to work very well for almost thirty years now. Guideline #1 Participation Agreement for Members of Group (1) My Belief System will acknowledge all of the facts. (2) I will be open to having my Belief System examined and questioned. (3) I will change my Belief System when errors or new fac...

If you had been a member of Yeshua’s group in the first century, there is little doubt that you would have heard Yeshua quote from and teach the following words. They are found in your Bible in ten chapters of Isaiah, chapters 51 through 61. I would like to suggest that you first read the version below and get a feel for what hearing Yeshua read it would have been like. You can use the online version, but it would be even better if you print the pdf version. http://www.biblicalheritage.org/yeshua-movement-handbook.html

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A very useful tool for your New Testament studies is the Parallel Greek New Testament  online. It is great for comparing manuscripts and translations of a verse and identifying differences. It displays the verse in three language groups: (1) Greek Texts (Dates) ● Stephens Textus Receptus (1550) ● Scrivener Textus Receptus (1894) ● Byzantine Majority Text (1982) ● Alexandrian Text (400) ● Hort and Westcott Text (1881) (2) Latin Text - Jerome's Vulgate (405) (3) English Texts (Dates) ● King James New Testament (1769) ● American Standard Version (1901) ● Bible in Basic English (1941) ● Darby's English Translation (1884) ● Douay Rheims Bible (1582) ● Noah Webster Bible (1833) ● Weymouth New Testament (1903) ● World English Bible (1997) ● Young's Literal Translation (1862) In this study we will compare the different ways a phrase in Matthew 6:22 appears. Greek Texts Stephens Textus Receptus (1550) o ofqalmoV sou ...

I have been involved in and coached youth sports (first grade to varsity) for many years. One thing I never expected from my players was perfection – “ You must be perfect to be part of the team .” But, I have spoken with many Christians that believed that “ being perfect ” is what Yeshua, the Jesus of history, expects from them because of the verses below: “ You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect .” (Luke 6:36 & Matthew 5:48) “ You must be perfect like God! ” You talk about setting the bar high, how about having to reach heaven to hit it! The words -- “ You must be perfect. . . ” – printed in red ink in New Testaments have caused a great deal of confusion and guilt in the lives of many English-only Christian readers. The English word “ perfect ” means -- “ completely free from faults or defects .” If there are two things that are polar opposites its humans and creatures completely free from faults or defects . But when we use the Y Team Bib...

Amen! I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass from the Law . . . (Matthew 5:18) What are jots and tittles? One thing they are is evidence that Yeshua, the Jesus of history, and his followers were very familiar with the Hebrew language. However, to understand this we have to trace the journey of the Hebrews words of Yeshua into the Greek language of the ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and then into the English translations we read today. In order to help you follow that journey I will use English transliterations of Greek and Hebrew words, which means I will replace their letters with English letters that are their equivalents. By the way, “Yeshua” is an English transliteration of the Hebrew word that is his name. If we use a Greek text of Matthew 5:18, the Greek word translators read for “ jot ” is “ iota .” Iota is the name of a Greek letter. It is usually transliterated by the English “ i .”  Ho...

Beliefs about the afterlife -- “ salvation ” -- are the biggest barriers keeping many Christians from straying away from their long held beliefs. This is completely understandable when so much is at stake in their minds – spending eternity in Heaven or Hell! Of course, there isn’t just one Christian Belief System in existence today. According to World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200 by David B. Barrett & Todd M. Johnson (© 2001 by David B. Barrett; William Carey Library, Pasadena, CA; p. 33): In 1970 global Christianity had 18,630 denominations/paradenominations. In 2000 global Christianity had 33,820 denominations/paradenominations. Estimates in 2017 indicate there are now probably 40,000 or more. Paradenominations are groups with religious agendas that specialize in specific areas, i.e., families, abortion, etc. What this means is that when someone asks questions about Christian beliefs, creeds, doctrines, etc., they may get a lot of answers that do not agree....

In our discussion about the Y Team Bible Study Method we created our first version of Yeshua’s Linguistic Profile . One of the cultural factors we learned about Yeshua is that he read and spoke Hebrew. Today we are going to examine one of the sources of that information. It is found in Luke 4:16-17: So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Shabbat and stood up to read. And he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had unrolled the scroll, he found the place where it was written . . . Between late 1946 and early 1947 the first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in Qumran Cave 1 , by a group of three Ta'amireh shepherds, near the Ein Feshka spring off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. One of those scrolls is the Great Isaiah Scroll . It is the oldest complete copy of the Book of Isaiah , being approximately 1000 years older than the oldest Hebrew manuscripts known before the discovery....

Developing your Bible study skills is one of the most important things you can do to accurately understand the life and words of Yeshua, the Jesus of history. We use a Linguistic Method of Bible Study , a science based model. Our goal is to discover what Yeshua’s words meant to him . Click here to learn more about our method – http://www.biblicalheritage.org/y-team-bible-study-method.html Sign up for the Y Team and receive all of the team information. Click Here for an Invitation Donations appreciated, no amount is too small. Click Here to Donate