Showing results by author "Pinchas Shir" in All Categories

Have you ever felt as you read the Bible that it makes no sense? You understand the words but not the meaning or the point the text is trying to make. The truth is - you are not alone. This book is not intended for someone who is new to the Bible or has never seriously studied it. It is meant for those who took plenty of time but still feel like something is missing. This book is for those who sense that there is more depth to those words and want to go deeper. The book title contains an idiom that implies the absence of several fundamental techniques frequently missing in a typical Bible ...

The Apocalypse of Abraham (התגלות אברהם, Hitgalut Avraham) is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic text believed to have been written between 70 and 150 CE. While the surviving manuscripts are in Old Slavonic, it is widely accepted that the original composition was in a Semitic language, evident from the presence of Hebraisms throughout the work. This newly translated version of the Apocalypse of Abraham (Kindle format) is released to gather some preliminary feedback from my readers. If you prefer a printed text, it is included in "Unheard Voices of Hebrew Kings and Prophets" - a ...

How much do you know about the beliefs and spiritual ideas embraced by Jews of the Second Temple Era? Biblical literature lays a solid foundation, but it is not a secret that students of antiquity also survey many texts outside the Bible to understand the broader cultural context. Inside this book are new and updated translations of seven Jewish texts: Prayer of Manasseh, Book of Baruch, Psalms of Solomon, Testament of Moses, Lives of the Prophets, Apocalypse of Moses, and Apocalypse of Abraham. Because these spiritual works are extra-canonical, their voices are often unheard. Curious? Let ...

The First Book of Enoch (Ethiopian Enoch), or "The Book of Watchers," is a well-known Jewish composition from the Second Temple era. Many popular English translations of Jewish extrabiblical texts were completed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, often mimicking the archaic vernacular of the most popular Bible of the bygone era. Since most Enoch scholars agree that the text was originally Aramaic or Hebrew, this new translation seeks to create a sense that one is reading a Semitic text periodically using Hebrew vernacular alongside English. This new translation presents the ancient ...

The Apocalypse of Moses (Hitgalut Moshe, התגלות משה) is an old title of the book that simply stuck. The name of the book preferred by many scholars today is Life of Adam and Eve (ספר אדם וחוה) because the contents of the composition retell and reimagine the stories from the first chapters of the Hebrew Bible. The text itself is an intriguing Jewish work composed sometime around the first century CE. This newly translated Apocalypse of Moses in Kindle format was released to solicit some preliminary feedback from my readers. This translation is part of a collection of texts...

The Second Book of Enoch (Slavonic Enoch) or "The Book of Secrets or Enoch" is an ancient Jewish spiritual composition. Though named after Enoch, it was not written by the biblical Enoch himself. He is the main character in the story of heavenly ascent, but not the author of the text we have today. Analyzing the medieval manuscripts, scholars estimate the text's composition sometime after the second century CE. This new translation presents the ancient, reconstructed text in modern, easy-to-read English. The primary goal of this new translation was to produce the text of 2 Enoch accessible ...

The Book of Baruch (ספר ברוך, Sepher Baruch), also known as 1 Baruch, is a non-canonical text attributed to Baruch ben Neriyah (ברוך בן נריה), a scribe and close associate of the prophet Jeremiah. The current version of the text we have today was likely put together by a Jewish author around the second century BCE or a little later. This new translation of the Book of Baruch (Kindle format) is released to gather some preliminary feedback from my readers. If you prefer a printed text, it is included in "Unheard Voices of Hebrew Kings and Prophets" - a collection of seven ...