From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday!
Dear beloved friends and co-workers,
Greetings from the Jerusalem Center for Translators!
Let us walk through the events of this significant week together in our thoughts and spirits. The week includes the Passover night celebration about the joy of gaining freedom from slavery in Egypt to the joyful celebration of gaining Eternal Life through repentance and forgiveness of sins!
Here at JCBT one lives in close proximity to the actual places where the events took place. One can drive to Bethany, the location of the events of Palm Sunday, in about half an hour from JCBT located in the Judean hills. Along the road, one can see some palm trees from which you can cut few branches to mark the road for the Messiah to pass by. The shouting and commotion could be heard in the valleys around in Hebrew:
“Hosanna! ‘Hosanna’! Baruch haBa beShem Adonai, melech Yisrael’: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, king of Israel”!
Just few days before this glorious entry to Jerusalem, the disciples prepared the traditional Passover meal in Jerusalem. It had been celebrated since the time of Moses. We celebrate the ancient Passover meal of celebration of freedom from slavery with our families and students every year. The meal became Jesus’ last supper with his disciples where he gave his last instructions and promises for us to celebrate as a Holy Communion which we are to do as he said: “in remembrance of me”.
After the Passover meal, Jesus and his disciples walked across the Kidron valley to the Mt. of Olives, where an olive press (‘gat shemanim’ – Gethsemane) was among the trees. He went there to pray “as was his custom”. There Jesus had his struggle with the ULTIMATE question: “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, NOT as I will, but as You will”.
On Friday, we can visit the traditional location of the Crucifixion at the Church of Holy Sepulcher with our students and other pilgrims from all over the world.
Sunday, Resurrection morning, is the day of ultimate Joy! We celebrate at the Garden Tomb, where a rock-hewn tomb from second temple time allows us to live the joy of victory of life over death. As the light is growing over the city from the east,
one can visit the empty grave while the bells of the many churches of the Jerusalem start ringing!
This message has now reached, starting from Jerusalem, to billions of people through thousands of languages, sometimes by word of mouth, but rooted in the languages through translations!
How far it has reached by 2021? 705 mother tongues have their OWN complete word of God! 1551 languages have the NT, but they lack the foundational story which is preserved in the Hebrew Bible. So also the OT needs to be given to all accurately and naturally translated. This is the vision of the JCBT.
JCBT news: the unique course of 2021 for Consultants and CITs (consultants-in-training) aims to give the best tools for quality translations. The courses are now being run efficiently and well via Zoom by the leadership of Dr. Reinier de Blois and his team. The course in Semantics, on the nuances of deeper meaning of the Hebrew words, will soon be complete. Discourse Analysis by Dr. Lenart de Regt will follow to explain the various linguistic structures of the Hebrew text. In May begins the important course of Biblical Poetry by Drs. Lynell Zogbo and Ernst Wendland. Our hope and prayer is that the enriching course on the context of the Bible, the Historical Geography course in the Land can be conducted in June, when Israel hopefully opens to visitors (Probably it will be required to have vaccinations, which our team has already taken. The vaccinations have drastically reduced Corona cases in Israel and are opening up social life accordingly).
With this imagined tour that you have just taken with us in order to recall the central events around Jerusalem 2000 years ago, we want to wish you a meaningful and joyful Easter season!
The reality of these events unite us with you friends and supporters and our former students in over 50 countries, where the work is GOING ON TO REACH MORE SMALL AND BIG NATIONS by giving the nations a Bible in their own tongues. The Biblical message changes lives and becomes the base for secure and happy life with God and men.
“The righteous flourish like a palm tree” (Psalm 92:12). It symbolizes the independence of a person from the present nonbiblical culture and reminds of “a tree planted by brooks of water, who brings forth its fruit in its season and his leaves do not wither, and everything he does succeeds”. (Psalm 1: 3).
May each of us be like such palm tree with sweet fruit to bless others!
Thank you for your prayers and support as you follow the events at JCBT and are part of its blessing to the nations.
With joy and blessings,
Halvor and Mirja Ronning
How can you be involved?
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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