Yet I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt; and you were not to know any god except Me, for there is no savior besides Me. Hosea 13:4 NASB Any god except Me – Martin Buber comments on passages like this one in Hosea: “Only by acknowledging YHVH as One, Whom they are willing to follow in…
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB Inspired – Paul’s choice of the Greek word for “inspired” leaves us hanging. Why? Because the word isn’t used anywhere else in the apostolic writings. Theópneustos literally means “God breathed,” but that leaves a lot…
Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness; let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head. Psalm 141:5 NIV That is a kindness – The basis for most English translations is the Masoretic text (MT). However, occasionally the MT just doesn’t make any sense. It might have been slavishly copied from older documents,…
Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day. Joshua 4:9 NASB In the middle – The story of Israel crossing the Jordan leaves us with a lot…
because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints; Philemon 1:5 NASB Toward – prós is a complicated Greek preposition. Its meaning changes with the case. If it expresses possession, it is a genitive and generally means “before.” If it is a dative,…
I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8 NASB Faith – When I was a child my family attended a local Protestant church. At age twelve, I was enrolled in a membership class where twelve-year-olds learned…
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…
Grant us grace, LORD, grant us grace. For we are sorely sated with scorn. Psalm 123:3 Robert Alter Grant – How did you come to believe? I’m not asking how you came into religion. That happens mostly by drifting through cultural or family expectations. No, I’m asking something else. How did you realize that God…
“Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “Futility of futilities! All is futility.” Ecclesiastes 1:2 NASB Futility – “Ecclesiastes is a strange and disquieting book. It gives voice to an experience not usually thought of as religious: the pain and frustration engendered by an unblinking gaze at life’s absurdities and injustices.”[1] The Preacher (Teacher) Qohelet writes…
No verse today. Just some personal reflections. For many years now, you and I have been exploring the origins of our faith. That means investigating the history of the ideas that we once accepted as part of our religious beliefs. What I’ve learned, and perhaps what you have also learned, is that most of my…
