I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, Deuteronomy 30:19 NASB Choose – Consider the tone of Moses’ final remarks to the people. “Witness against you,” doesn’t…
When brothers live together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband’s brother shall have relations with her and take her to himself as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. Deuteronomy 25:5 NASB Husband’s brother – The…
My strength and song is God, and this is my deliverance; This is my God, I will enshrine Him, My father’s God, I will exalt Him. Exodus 15:2 Aryeh Kaplan Is God – The NASB translates the opening of Moses’ song like this: “The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.” The…
To the [a]saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. Colossians 1:2 NASB Saints – You know, some people just have a deeper spiritual connection than most of us. God seems to be more present to them. That’s why we call them saints, right? In fact, if they…
How long, O LORD, will You forget me always? How long hide Your face from me? How long shall I cast about for counsel, sorrow in my heart all day? How long will my enemy loom over me? Psalm 13:2-3 [Hebrew] Robert Alter How long? – We covered the Hebrew intensity of this phrase nearly…
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 NASB This world – Paul strictly instructs followers of the Messiah to resist conformity to the patterns of this world,…
For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3 NASB According to the Scriptures – Paul has a problem, or at least we think he does if we read this verse from a Christian perspective. Why? Because, as Adam Clarke…
I and the Father are [a]one.” John 10:30 NASB One – The Trinity. A doctrine that divided Christianity—not only from Judaism but from itself. In the early centuries of Christian development, the split over the proclaimed divinity of Christ broke the Christian world in two. Arius and Athanasius. It wasn’t a happy separation. Accomplished by murder,…
For He sates the thirsting throat and the hungry throat He fills with good. Psalm 107:9 Robert Alter Throat – Robert Alter stresses the need to translate Hebrew terms consistently. His point is simple. Hebrew has a rather sparse vocabulary. Often a single Hebrew word has many different potential English translations. Since English style tends…
That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Fear not, for I am with you, and I will bless you and increase your offspring for the sake of My servant Abraham. Genesis 26:24 JPS Your father – It only happens three times. Genesis 28:13, Genesis 32:9…
