Thank you for helping with Galatians chapter 4. Your knowledge was extremely useful. It brought great joy to my heart.
Mrs. Lynn Allen
Meadville, PA

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In the democratic days we live in, everybody claims the right to believe whatever they want. Further, many say there is no absolute truth, that everything is true if you want it to be. But is that really true? Jesus claimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” Jn. 14:6. Are we building our lives on illusions or on solid truth? We had better make sure! It is literally a question of life or death. I’ve found in the Gates of Eden solid truth, and I’m challenged to build on it. Keep up the excellent work.
Pastor Clifford Rudy
Canalou, MO

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Here is a donation. Your articles on Calvinism & Arminianism and speaking in tongues more than made up for your dud of an article on the state of the dead.
An Indiana reader

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Just had a chance to read “The Ghost of Marcion.” Very enlightening in several places. What mischief the early apostates wrought, which remains in “the churches” today. There is indeed an attitude that looks at the pre-Messianic Scriptures as being of little or no consequence.
Al Dager
Redmond, WA

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Please remove me from your mailing list. I say this with affection, having enjoyed reading your newsletters, but you are “too Jewish” for me, a devout Roman Catholic.
P.S. I love your art!
A Wisconsin reader

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Thank you for your article in Art Calendar’s May 2001 issue [“Nitzotz, The Spark in Art”]. You have given me a new way to share my art with those of my friends who are better versed in Talmud than artspeak.
A New York artist

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The “Symbol and Substance” article hits a nail that needs much pounding on the head; and “...the Name...” article by John K. McKee that follows it exemplifies the issue in one area where much divisiveness has been allowed to enter amongst believers. It’s so easy to get caught up in the form that we can miss the point of Him Who weighs the thoughts and intents of the heart. I’ve had a number of conversations with individuals who are very strong on “The Name,” Its pronunciation, spelling (using Roman characters), etc. Some are even of the opinion that unless you pronounce it exactly right, “He ain’t gonna listen to ya.” My response is simply this: I look at HaShem as our Father. And as a father on earth does not reject his babe because he can’t pronounce the word correctly, the heavenly Father does not despise us just because we’re still infantile in our speech. In the final analysis the ones that are with Him are not there because they can pronounce His Name correctly, but because He knows them. Whether I’ve called on the Saviour* as Yeshua, Yahshua, Yehoshua, or Jesus will make no difference on that day if I’ve been proud and despised my brother in my heart.
*I like the English spelling of the word Saviour, because it has both u and i.
Ernest Ben Dorantes
Altamont, TN

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I read with great interest in the Petah Tikvah magazine your article “The Messiah’s Hebrew Name: Yeshua or Yahshua?” As far as the name form of Yeshu - - in your footnote #4, that name is really an acronym for the odious derogatory expression used by Jews to mean “May his name and his memory be blotted out” - the first three letters of the Hebrew expression:
Albert Tyberg
Monroe Twp., NJ

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I knew that Yeshu can be used as an acronym, as you show. However, the uncertainty to which I referred in my footnote is the uncertainty of whether or not the shortened Yeshu form was originally contrived with the derogatory acronym in mind. In other words, which came first, the shortened 3-letter form, or the idea of shortening the name from Yeshua to Yeshu for the express purpose of making a derogatory statement? Galilean Jews of New Testament times did not pronounce the Hebrew letter ayin () at the end of a word. This means they would have pronounced Jesus’ name as “Yeshu” rather than “Yeshua.” Whether or not it was acceptable to spell the name the way it was pronounced in Galilee (without the final letter ayin) is open to debate. The name is spelled that way in the Talmud, and we know that the 3 letters were, at some point in time, used to make the derogatory acronym. But from the above information (which can be confirmed in Stern’s Jewish NT Commentary, p. 5), we must conclude that the pronunciation (and possibly even the spelling) of Yeshu existed before the formation of the derogatory acronym. The Yeshu form itself was not an invention of Jesus’ enemies; it was only the later formation of the acronym that was their invention. It would be as if my enemies would take Dan, a short form of my full name, Daniel, and use it to form an insult: Dirty Abominable Nothing, or something like that. The shortened form existed first, and the insulting acronym came later. -DB