Month: August 2012

  • Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing (Greek) Word – Part 1.

    For it is not merely the hearers of Torah whom God considers righteous; rather, it is the doers of what Torah says who will be made righteous in God’s sight. (Rom. 2:13, Complete Jewish Bible) Alone – When Skip extended an invitation to contribute to Today’s Word, I knew I would have some difficulty in matching his…

  • Word Work

    But the word of the Lord abides forever.  1 Peter 1:25 and Isaiah 40:8  NASB Word – Since this New Testament reference is a quotation from an Old Testament verse, we can look at both the Greek and the Hebrew.  The Greek word is rhema.  The Hebrew word is dabar.  Both words mean “to speak,…

  • Motivating Presence

    Let your moderation be known to all men:  the Lord is near.   Philippians 4:5  NASB Near – This is a funny sounding word in Greek – eggus.  It literally means “close or near.”  Therefore, our English translation looks just fine.  But Paul is a deeper thinker than pashat meanings.  He is making an allusion to…

  • More Than Fair

     Let your moderation be known to all men:  the Lord is near.   Philippians 4:5  NASB Moderation –  The Greek word here is epieikes.  It comes from the word eikos (meaning “fair or equitable”) but Paul adds epi to the beginning to make the word stronger.  With this addition, “moderation” probably does not convey the right…

  • Some Final Thoughts on Body and Soul

    By now you have struggled through the implications of Matthew 10:28, Yeshua’s supposed endorsement of the “body-soul” dualism that we have been exploring for the last 4 days.  Perhaps we haven’t solved the riddle of the translation, but we have at least learned these few things: 1.  The “body-soul” or “body-mind-soul” or “body-spirit-soul” concepts found…

  • Losing Your Way (4)

    And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Matthew 10:28  ESV Soul – Greek dualism proposes that Man consists of at least two parts:  body (soma) and soul (psyche).  According to Greek philosophical thinking following Plato, the…

  • Losing Your Way (3)

    And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Matthew 10:28  ESV Body – In this verse, the translator of Yeshua’s comment uses the Greek word soma.  We might expect soma to be the substitute for basar (Hebrew:…

  • Losing Your Way (2)

    And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Matthew 10:28  ESV Destroy – [WARNING:  This a long because the subject is complicated.]  Does Yeshua teach the destruction of the soul?  If He does, doesn’t this stand in…

  • Losing Your Way (1)

    And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Matthew 10:28  ESV Destroy – It is my intention, over the next several days, to deal with the concept of body and soul.  We can begin with this verse…