Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime. Deuteronomy 24:16 JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy Only – Does God punish people for the sins of their ancestors? Well, if you read Exodus 20:5-6, Exodus 34:6-7,…
“And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” Acts 2:24 NASB End – In the end, the ultimate question of life is death. In fact, every human philosophy and religion must deal with the ubiquity of death. …
In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth – when the earth was astonishingly empty, . . . Genesis 1:1 JPS Stone Tanakh In the beginning – You’re probably a bit surprised by the JPS translation of the first verse of the Tanakh. While it contains some of our usual words, its…
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8 ESV Sabbath – Followers of the God of Israel are Sabbath keepers. This ritual is the most conspicuous symbol of association with YHWH in all of the Tanakh. In fact, YHWH holds His people accountable for the sin of not keeping Sabbath. It is of…
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. Romans 9:4 ESV Belong – Are you under the false impression that the biblical experience of God belongs to the Church? Do you think God’s promises are promises for the Church? Did…
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27 NASB Created – Have you ever wondered about the construction of this verse? Why does it seem to repeat itself? Did you think it was just for emphasis? But then why would…
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned Romans 5:12 NIV Because – As Dwight Pryor points out, in 1599 the Geneva Bible translated the Latin text rather than the Greek text for this crucial word. The…
By now many of you know that I will be in Africa (not just South Africa) for nearly a month, leaving in just two days. I will NOT HAVE internet, telephone or even electricity (except by battery) for the first two weeks. Therefore, I will not be able to answer emails (or even get them),…
In the beginning God created [et] . . . . Genesis 1:1 NASB Et – If you read this text in Hebrew you would read the following: beresheet bara Elohim et hashamayim ve-et ha-aretz. Let me try to display this in Hebrew letters: Why is it important to see the Hebrew text? Because there is…
Rosanne and I just got off the Celebrity Eclipse in Southampton, England. For the last two weeks I have been lecturing about the end of the Roman Empire, the port city-states of Europe and the impact of Greek-Roman ideas and culture on the formation of the Western world. Most of the people in my audiences…
