Ambrosiaster on the workers of miracles

The Ambrosiaster text gives a fourth century or later Latin perspective on the workers of miracles as described by St. Paul.
Paul wrote about this function in his First letter to the Corinthians (12:28).
Here is the actual Biblical citation:

And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.”(NIV)

The key-text here is the “workers of miracles” which in the Greek text is δυνάμεις and in Ambrosiaster’s text, virtutes.

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Attempts on Translating Rashi and Jewish Aramaic

Rashi, an 11th century French Rabbi, is one of the most important commentators of the Talmud and is central to the contemporary study of it. In fact, some texts of the Talmud are difficult to understand without reference to him.

One would think that his works would be ubiquitous for the English reading audience, but English translations, outside of his commentary of the Torah, are almost non-existent.

This forces curious researchers such as myself to look at texts in the original language, which in this case is a complex mixture of classical Hebrew, Rabbinic Aramaic and at a lesser rate, old French.

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Literal or Dynamic translations?

The nuances of translating is difficult. One cannot directly translate word for word from one language to another. For example, Origen’s command of Greek presupposed one understands the neo-platonic background that he wrote from. If one produces the translation in a literal fashion, it leaves severe literary gaps that assumes the reader understands the antecedents …

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Jacob the min

Jacob the min, one of the earliest Jewish Messianic believers documented only in the Talmud.

Notes for Learning Ancient Hebrew

A different method for learning Biblical Hebrew which may not work for everyone–learn modern Hebrew first. A look into those theory and how it applies to ancient Hebrew.

Classical Hebrew, the text for the majority of the Old Testament, is only a small part of the available Hebrew writings available today.

It doesn’t take much more effort to learn modern Hebrew over learning to read classical Hebrew texts. Utilizing the same amount of time learning modern Hebrew gives one a much more comprehensive toolkit.

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A Primer for the Evangelical on the Talmud

A complete set of the Talmud Babli
An introduction to Christians about the amazing ancient collection of writings written by Jewish authorities called the Talmud.
The Talmud is a broad collection of Jewish writings that the majority of evangelical Bible students could easily read and understand. It is very close in the thoughts and methods outlined in the New Testament.
There were quotes that Christ made that paralleled those in the Talmud. This has captured the imagination of many scholars who are looking for more correlations. A long-running argument has gone on as to whether Christ borrowed from earlier traditions, or He actually was the originator of them.
The Talmud is in many ways closer to the epoch of the New Testament than Greek classical writings such as Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras.
Because of this, the Talmud is an invaluable piece of ancient literature for those seeking religious truth.

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