Yes, let all who hope in You be not shamed. Let the treacherous be shamed, empty-handed. Psalm 25:3 Robert Alter translation Hope – After our recent discussion of batah, you might expect to find that word behind the English “hope.” To trust is to hope. The result is a public display. But that’s not what the psalmist wants…
My God, in You I trust. Let me be not shamed, let my enemies not gloat over me. Psalm 25:2 Robert Alter translation [First, an apology. Since the death of Rosanne’s mother, our lives have been in continuing chaos. We have been staying in Rosanne’s mother’s condo in Florida. That is part of a trust…
And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Genesis 15:5 NASB If– Avivah Zornberg frames our persistent question: “How can an individual count? The children of Abraham are to be like the sand on…
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.1 John 4:18 NASB No fear– “Christian love is so lacking its emotional polarity that the Devil had to be invented to focus natural human hatred and hostility.”[1] Is Paglia correct? Did we…
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.1 John 4:18 NASB Is not perfected– teleióō. That’s the Greek term here. The verb is a perfect passive. ESV translates it as “has not been perfected.” The NASB translation could give us the…
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.1 John 4:18 NASB Involves punishment– What does fear have to do with punishment? If we can’t answer that question, then we probably can’t understand what John is trying to communicate about…
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.1 John 4:18 NASB Casts out– No, we’re not ready to examine the first part of John’s thought yet. You know, that part about “no fear.” We will get there, in a Hebrew…
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.1 John 4:18 NASB Perfect love – What does “perfect love” mean to you? Not Hollywood’s version, I’m sure. Maybe you think of the ideal bliss of complete vulnerability (or maybe that seems…
When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water— God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3 JPS Tanakh Began to create– I’m guessing that you’ve never read the opening verses of…
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.1 Timothy 1:3-4 NASB Administration– In the ESV this verse reads: “nor to devote themselves…
