I waited all my lifetime to see it, then in my final months, I finally had to write the book I sought…Yeshu Hannosri, from a Jewish Woman’s perspective. Every person has a story, even the vulgar and the profane, and it was my sincerest wish to incorporate the realistic story of Jesus of Nazareth into the Greco-Roman and Jewish cultures of the time, as it happened on a day-today basis, in the same terms as He chose to reveal Himself. To contrast the simple faith of Hilkiah the shepherd youth who pledged his life in service to the newborn King of Israel that fateful night in Bethlehem and thirteen-year-old Ahava, named ‘Beloved’ by her old father as Joseph neared the end of his life; a young Jewish maid overlooked by her gender and gentle nature as she comes of age in her widowed mother’s busy house under the fond indulgence of four older brothers, with that of the expectations of Pontius Pilate and the Jewish Establishment well entrenched under Roman authority who were fearful and outraged when challenged by the teachings and acceptance of the gentle Carpenter from Nazareth thirty years later. With so much to lose if He proved as outspoken to the Romans, as He was to them.  To the everyday folk where I would have found myself. A world of scholars and scoundrels, deep, watchful thinkers and souls too busy with the needs of survival to look unless it thundered when they’d put out their wash to dry, never caring if ought else rested behind the overcast sky. 
           For those who haven’t the time to move slowly across the months required to ponder a seventeen hundred page novel, there are five abbreviated forms of the same novel: " Majesty ~ The Book ", based on the character of the gentle Bethlehem Shepherd who spent his life in service to the King,  “A Man called Isaac “, a soldier’s view of the Passion of the Christ, “Ahava ”, the story of growing up with the Lord as a loving older brother only to have your simple and uneducated faith challenged by the extremes of attitudes toward His claim to be the long awaited Jewish Messiah, " Forty Days in Zion ",as the Risen Christ Instructed and empowered those He appointed to lead the Church forward, and lastly, “ The Promise of My Father ”, as Issac and Ahava, the younger daughter of Joseph and Mary share in the formation of the early Jewish Church in Jerusalem, to the road to Damascus as they help the stricken Paul to his feet. .            
              Every person had to make the same decision required of us today…Was Jesus of Nazareth the Son of the living GOD? The promised Jewish Redeemer and King?  The Savior and Lord of all mankind who died that we might live. Who was he? What was he? What did He say about Himself? And finally, my Friend, that is what you have to decide~Who is He? Your Savior or your Judge?  Choose well, eternity rests on your decision. “                                     
               A.R. Koheen                                    
              Spokane, Washington                                    
              United States of America             

Lion

“Majesty, Lion of Judah”

An original Chart. 
Abib: March/April  [7th month of Civil year][1st month of Religious calendar]  Warming weather, Pulling of Flax   29 days 
Iyar or (Ziv), April, May [8th month of Civil Year][2nd month of Religious Calendar] Temps climb but weather still nice   29 days 
Sivan, May/June  [9th month of Civil Year][3rd month of Religious calendar] Barley harvest, winter wheat; First Fruits Deut 16:9-12  30 days 
Tammuz, June/July  [10th month of Civil Year][4th month of Religious Calendar] Really hot!   29 days 
Ab   July/August  [11th month of Civil year][5th month of Religious]  Harvest of summer fruit, hot!  30 days 

Elul   August/ September [12th month of Civil calendar][6th month of religious calendar]  Cooling weatherand Olive harvest     29 days 

Ethanim, or (Tishri): Sept./October  [Start of Civil year][7th month of Religious Calendar]

            Mild to moderate weather; time for plowing    30 days 

Heshvan, also called “ Marchesvan” or “But” ,  October/November  [2nd month of Civil year] [8th month of Religious Calendar]  Grain plating, cooling down;

            “First rains”     29 or 30 days 

Chislev   November/December  [3rd month of Civil year][9th month of Religious calendar]  Dreary and overcast    29 days 

Tebeth, December/January   [4th month of the Civil Year][10th month of Religious Calendar]  Overcast and cloudy    29 days 

Shebat    January/February   [5th month of Civil year][11th month of Religious calendar] Life begins to  pick up on the streets    30 days 

Adar   February/ March  [6th month of Civil year][12th month of Religious Calendar] “Latter rains” Jeremiah 3:3      29 or 30 days

2nd Adar or ‘Veadar’   Used to maintain the balance of the calendar   29 days  
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Leap Years run in 17 year cycles, with 9 occurrences of a 2nd Abib [or, “Veadar”] lasting 29 days.The first and the last years are leap years automatically.  

Four different New years are listed in the Mishna:  First of Abib [Nisan] for the religious calendar and dates and festivals,  First of Elul for tithing cattle, and the First of Ethanim [Tishri] for the civil  calendar, and more recently the 15th of Shebat [Shevat] as the New Year for trees.

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The Tabernacle in Ancient Israel
[Pattern for the Temple worship]
http://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/

Life in the Holy Land, illustrations in Black and White

http://www.lifeintheholyland.com/

On line images for Biblical Studies
http://www.bible-history.com/

Life in the Holy Land, illustrations in Color, with commentary

http://www.welcometohossanna.com/
 

RETURN TO" WEbsite for " Majesty, Lion of Judah Collection "

" The Majesty, Lion of Judah Collection " 

From the hill where Bethlehem sits to the road where Damascus waits, an epic exploration of Messianic expectation in Ancient Israel in three volumes. Told within the context of the Greco-Roman & Hebrew world of the day, as seen through the eyes of three of the least: A thirteen-year-old Jewish shepherd boy from Bethlehem who witnessed the angelic Annunciation and pledged his life in service to the newborn King of Israel until He took his rightful throne in Jerusalem, the city of David; a young girl coming of age in a carpenter's shop in Nazareth, overlooked in her widowed mother's busy household because of her gender and gentle nature, and a Roman-born Jew who turned to the apparent strength of the oppressor in his  youth, who finds only disillusionment as his twenty-five year career in the Army comes to an end until he meets the gentle Carpenter from Nazareth and is sovereignly healed on the banks of the River Jordan to give him the time he needs to seek out and discover the truth of the man Jesus for himself! Following the events and story contained in the Synoptic Gospel Accounts and the Acts of the Apostle's, until he helps a blinded Saul to his feet for the remainder of the journey in love!

Majesty, Lion of Judah “  ~ Vol I     
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A humble family of shepherds keeping watch over their lambing ewes in the hills of Bethlehem witness the awesome spender of the angelic Annunciation in the night skies. The youngest of seven sons, thirteen-year-old Hilkiah pledges his life in service to the newborn King of Israel until he takes his rightful throne in the City of David, though it means leaving his elderly father and family behind. As he grows with Joesph's family in Nazareth, taking a wife and starting a family of his own, he keeps his word as Jesus leaves his father's house to travel the length and breath of ancient Israel proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven at hand. Like the sword foretold to be laid against the virgin mother's heart as she brought her firstborn son to the temple to become an heir of Abraham in keeping with the ancient laws, the thirty year old man divides His listeners and discerns their innermost thoughts. Cleansing the Temple, Jesus chose to make a new home for himself in Northern Israel, in the city of Capurnaum on the Sea of Galilee, reaching out throughout the countryside between annual travels to Jerusalem for the Passover where His presence in the Temple keeps the controversy between expectation and status quo alive.  Jesus' widowed mother and her younger younger daughter by Joesph are traveling with Him until the year of 'bethroathal' her older brother James arboreally made to furtherer her brother'sworldly careers as master carpenters has quietly passed by without humiliating anyone or forcing her into a loveless marriage.  When Volume I ended, Machba`nel ben Abishalom, the roman-born Jewish Centurion finally confronted his feelings toward Jesus and His teachings by again slicing his life into two halves. That he will honorably complete his twenty-five year tenure of service as a Roman soldier, then turn to build the army he assumes King Jesus will need to lead Israel as a nation under GOD in the midst of carnal nations, as with David and Solomon.
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Majesty, Lion of Judah “ Vol. II
 The Story Thus Far: The Annunciation, birth, and presentation of Jesus of Nazareth. At about thirty years of age He presented himself to the temple, and cleansed it the first time. Remaining in the countryside, towns and major cities of ancient Israel, He healed and preached far and wide, the arrival of the Kingdom of GOD at its appointed time and place. He is now preparing to enter Jerusalem for the third Passover, at which time he will be accepted by the people as the long awaited Messiah, but will be confronted by the angry priests and rich merchants who have craved a place for themselves in a Jerusalem dominated by the power of Rome. He prepares Himself for the inevitable and climatic clash between mammon and destiny. 
 ♥
" Majesty, Lion of Judah "  ~ Vol. III
The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, the Passion of the Christ, his Resurrection, and the tear years of the Jewish Church in Jerusalem. Pausing its narrative at the road where Isaac helps blinded Saul of  Tarsus to his feet, an enemy no longer.                                                            

 

Lion

" Majesty " ~ The Book

Condescend Novel from " Majesty, lion of Judah"

" Majesty" ~ The Book is a labour of love in the summer of my 68th year and the culmination of a lifetime spent quietly observing from the sidelines as I've watched the good and bad of Life play itself out. If Thee are looking for a comprehensive review of all the Master said and did, thee will not find it in this small volume. Many of the stories and miracles I so painstakingly examined in "Majesty, Lion of Judah"  Volumes I,II & III are strangely absent here. Indeed it is not even the story of Hilkiah, the former shepherd boy alone, but of the people and the lives impacted by Jesus' Life, Ministry, and Death, although I used the gentle man of faith to anchor the story and limit it from the seventeen hundred page original. I discovered such a rich texture of unguessed faith and questioning that my only regret is that I didn't realize it in time to give him his own book as I did Machba`nel and Ahava. It is often the quiet people, sustaining life in their steadfast fashion, who are overlooked until the thread of the weave is more closely examined. But then...if I were braver, I would have looked to the Majesty Himself. This I must leave for each of us to do in our fashion. May your search, here and elsewhere, bring thee the same joy and encouragement in good and bad is my avid prayer. Until we meet again at the Throne where all questions and doubts will be resolved, I remain, faithfully, your friend and sister, A.R.Koheen

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" A Man called Isaac " 

~ The Passion of the Christ from a Soldier's point of view

Growing up it seemed to me that there were two Roman soldiers so intimately aware of the Jewish religion when so few of my Gentile friends showed an interest, but I have since come to the conclusion that there was only one man, set by Pontius Pilate to head the death watch of our LORD for spite, since the Centurion publicly acknowledged Jesus’ authority in their home town of Capernaum when he asked Him to heal his dying servant. But such a man had faith that made Jesus marvel, and for this story I needed someone a little more open to angst and to questioning, so I gave him an adopted Jewish son, a man likewise risen through the ranks to a position of trust and authority. As I saw more and more of Machba`nel in writing him in the full length novel covering the Synoptic Gospel Account of the LORD’S Ministry I found him worthy of his own book covering the same events in a more compact framework that still left room for him to dare to ask the questions that needed to be asked-and answered-if there was to be true faith. This then is his book, as well as mine. 
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 “  Ahava  “

~ A girl named 'Beloved'

      I am conscious that the only things known about me after my departure are those things I speak aloud, and so, on most I am grateful to be silent. But there is one in particular which has shaped my life even when I was rebelling against it!  I was six years old, my parents were already separated, having lived separate lives for as long as I could remember, but coming together twice a week, as I was allowed to do, in an upstairs apartment in a four-plex just outside of Watts, California that I still cherished as 'The House on West 38th Street'. We stopped our horses in the shade of a rough-hewn 'bridle path'. I was at the stage of saying 'You know what?' five or six times because I was nervous at having an adult's full attention, and I have no idea how he was ever so patient with me! I'd never seen him so nervous or concerned. As a 'half-breed' Ed Simpson had been schooled by life to keep his feelings locked inside. But this one I remember so vividly, despite my stokes, that I can feel the wind on my cheek, I can smell the dirt and horsy smells, the tang of his 'natural pine' aftershave with the slightest permission to allow it to draw near! 

    Then the image shifts and I am older, wondering why he has 'abandoned' me even though I know that's unfair to both of us. I'm sitting on the edge of the fountain at Saint Francis Cabrini Academy in Los Angeles, watching the gold fish swim in shadows as he is reminding me of 'that day' and my promise to him that I would write down the book from that child's dream. And I fear to probe how the two images overlap, but I remember looking at his face that day in the open, near our rental horses, as he told me, watching his hands in an oddly quiet manner even for him, who was a Quaker by the time I knew him, and he, a man never given to 'omens' or 'signs' or ‘visions’ of the ecstatic sort, told me in a tremulous voice that he believed God had spoken to him. That he believed he had been told that 'one day' after going down too many empty roads, I would 'come home', that the recurring dream I had of being a young Jewish girl growing up in Nazareth wasn't a delusion I was the Virgin Mary reincarnated, the way my mother, a non-Jew's Jew, chose to interpret it, but rather a 'sign' that one day I would find the adult capacity to look back on this time of my life and be able to relate with another young Jewish girl who grew up in an observant, loving house with an elder half brother who claimed to be the long awaited Jewish messiah, who would be killed for His beliefs, but whom God would rise up on the third day. He was worried that I wouldn't remember. I do. He was worried I be concerned it meant a man would die. I came to know and understand that in a way my tender soul would have rebelled at that young age, and indeed did, well into middle age. I never felt worthy of it. But as he looked in my face he relaxed. We talked about how the story would be "shared around the world" in the 1950's; long before we knew of this thing called the Internet which would be privatized and 'personalized' with computers in nearly every home or school library. That I would get to see a portion of that. I have. But that "Majesty" wouldn't become a world wide phenomenon until after I'd rejoined the Master in Heaven. I've always been strangely content with that. As sure of it coming true as I was of my Daddy's love. Then one day, it happened. "Majesty" was written as I lay dying, and in believing, I was healed and restored. Because I remained housebound I was able to explore worlds I would never have dared if I had physical mobility, and now...now, my Dear Ones...I am about to have my first book of prose published in Spring, 2011 and I am again a little six year old girl sitting next to her daddy, who stood six foot tall in her eyes, and I can smile back, and it's my turn to relax. It came true, Daddy. Just like you said! It only took some sixty years for me to allow to prove you right, as you were all along. Go figure, eh Pops?
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" Forty Days in Zion "

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Using the continuing characters of the Majesty collection, I wished to illustrate the LORD moving among His people in reassurance and instruction that hadn't been possible in His focus on the Nation. Leading up to His return tot he right hand of the Father and the Day of Pentecost on a more personal level of the lives impacted by these momentous events.
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 “  Promise of My Father  “

~ The formation of the early Jewish Church in Jerusalem in Christ Jesus

Following the dramatic events of Pentecost day, sixteen year old Ahava bat Joses faces the challenges of daily life in the Holy city of Jerusalem as the majority of her contemporaries are simply learning to deal with life as a young married in a busy city, "Beloved " a country girl at heart, is thrust into the unique challenges of a growing Sect who believe her older half-brother Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the long awaited Messiah as so many before him claimed to be. While faith isn't an issue for her or the older man who has pledged his love for her for the remainder of her life, there was no 'program' set before the Eleven except that should follow the example lived by the Master and to treat one another with love ~ while love is the last thing they are faced with on a daily basis!
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Who is A.R. Koheen? 

            I am an elderly Hebrew Christian believer in Jesus of Nazareth as the Jewish Messiah and the Savior of the world, both Jew and Gentile. I believe the Jewish people remain ‘the apple of God’s eye’, that the Incarnation, Ministry, death and Resurrection of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, was established before the first act of creation. That my belief in Jesus as the long anticipated Jewish Messiah, augmented by Holy Scripture before and after this Advent, is the most Jewish thing I can do, and since my identify as a Jew is based on race and belief rather than anyone else’s value system, this allows me to remain quietly proud and humbled at being allowed this privilege, whatever the contempt of those who based their Jewishness on the degree of their rejection to His sacred claim or those who name themselves after Him but reject his leadership and His chosen people.

            From 2002 to 2008, for the seven years I wrote this 1700 page, epic exploration of messianic expectation in ancient Israel, I was in constant and relenting pain, and the only thing which pulled me off that mattress each day was another chapter, another insight I was driven to share, expecting to die before I could end it.  My blood sugars daily peaked between the three hundreds and four hundreds, I struggled with an enlarged heart and deep vein thrombosis. I was shunned relentlessly because of the infections diabetes and allergy to antibiotics allowed to form on my arms and legs; I despaired of life as deeply as Job…and by His grace, I have come to the same end. My life now is better than it ever was before. Even if I have limited physical mobility, my spirit has wings with which to fly. I am privileged to live in this world but I look forward earnestly to the next. I have been blessed with friends who make me feel like I matter, I have food, shelter, all of my needs, and most of my whims met. And by returning to this on-line site, there is only one major desire left unmet ~ as yet. Being in Israel when Messiah Jesus returns.  My purpose in writing this book is to present Jesus of Nazareth to the uncaring, the unchurched, the causal, and the carnal in the manner and order He saw fit to present Himself as recorded in the New Testament; stripped of the iconic stereotypes and standardized images which fail to take into consideration the very Roman-Greco politically observant world He chose for His Advent.  Perhaps He should have waited for CNN? Who am I to say? For myself, I’m glad he didn’t. I needed to hear the message as I was growing up with a foot in both worlds! 

            The story deserves to be told, and I won’t always be around to tell it, so here goes: when I was just six years old and still stuttering with “You know what?” several times in awe that I had any adult’s full attention, my father urged us to dismount on the side of the familiar bridle trail and he told me something that remained for another fifty plus years.  He wasn’t a man given to whim or fantasy, and his late in life acceptance of Quaker beliefs deeply permeated every corner of the life he lived openly. But as he looked at his hands and they were shaking, he told me in a low voice that he believed God had spoken deep within his inner being. That the consistent dream I kept telling him about having would one day be a book I would write. Later, at the boarding school, he reminded me of it and asked if I had kept it in mind? I had, but the thought of it was intimidating. That it would be become a worldwide phenomenon ‘after he and I was gone’ but that I ‘d get to glimpse it going out into the world. This before we had any idea of the Internet or that it would become a worldwide domain. But I have indeed seen it go out into the world at large…even into Muslim countries and places I couldn’t have imagined even if I had been so bold as to dare!  Europe, Asia, the near East, the Far East, the Americas, Africa…I don’t know if we’ve been in Greenland, the Antarctic or Cubs yet…but one never knows where ‘other’ or ‘unknown’ arose.  Now, I offer the story to you and I hope it comes to mean as much to thee as it does to me, after three years of revisions. GOD Bless!

    A.R. Koheen

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Since I could not say one thing happen on "this day" in one book - and then say in another book that a different conversation or event took place on that day, I chose to keep the same pattern of events as in the main Volume, "MAJESTY, LION OF JUDAH " Volumes I,II & III. Therefore, each story is told through the different perspective, since the rule of writing Narrative First First Person could also apply to this Third Person Narrative script: If the hero isn't there to see it, or hear about it from a reliable first party person, it doesn't get into the book! In this way, there are some scenes and conversations unique to each book, and the character who is the focus for it's being told.