But I confess this to you, that in accordance with [h]the Way, which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and is written in the Prophets; 15 having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous…
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Isaiah 1:18a KJV Reason – Despite the later translation corrections of this Hebrew verb (yākaḥ rendered in the NASB as “debate” and in the NIV as “settle”), most believers of a certain age recall this verse in its King James vernacular, “let us reasontogether.” We won’t…
“The Son of Man is going away just as it is written about Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good [a]for that man if he had not been born.” Matthew 26:24 NASB As it is written – I recently engaged in a lively interchange with someone…
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NASB Became flesh – Millard Erickson’s book The Word Became Flesh is an exercise in Trinitarian justification. No effort is spared to prove that Jesus is the Second Person of the Godhead, equally…
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NASB Became flesh – Suppose for just a moment that John is thoroughly Jewish. Suppose he is operating in the typical way Jews handled the Tanakh in the first century. Suppose he’s writing…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 NASB The Word – Richard Rubenstein’s book, When Jesus Became God, investigates the battle between Arius and Athanasius in the early centuries of the Church. That battle ended with Athanasius as the victor, and established the Latin Roman Church’s…
For there also have to be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. 1 Corinthians 11:19 NASB Factions – Paul uses the Greek term haíresis a few times in his letters. Today we think he’s writing about false doctrines. We transliterate the Greek as heresy, by which we mean something…
“because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.) Mark 7:19 NASB Clean – What a mess this verse has created! Why it became a mess is a study in the program of self-identity that the Church undertook in the third century. Suffice…
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark 1:1 NASB Son of God – Jewish orthodox rabbi Daniel Boyarin (yes, the Daniel Boyarin) wrote The Jewish Gospels, just published this year. In it he makes the claim that the gospels are thoroughly Jewish, including the idea of a divine Messiah…
and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Galatians 1:2 NASB Churches – We know that translators of the English Bible take considerable liberties with the word ekklesia. We know that ekklesia never means “religious assembly” in non-biblical Greek literature. We know that ekklesia is translated “church” when the context…
