God

  • Translation vs. Theology

    Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  Psalm 8:5  NASB God – You probably learned this verse as “a little lower than angels.”  But that’s not what it says in Hebrew.  Take a look. וַתְּחַסְּרֵ֣הוּ מְ֖עַט מֵֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים וְכָב֖וֹד וְהָדָ֣ר תְּעַטְּרֵֽהוּ The crucial word here is ʾĕlōhîm (with…

  • Perspective

    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NASB)  This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. (Genesis 2:4 NASB) God/ Lord God – As you probably know, the first verse of Genesis uses the term ʾĕlōhîm to designate…

  • What Day Is That? (2)

    Then you will say on that day, “I will give thanks to You, Lord; for although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.  Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.”  Isaiah 12:1-2 NASB Trust – What is…

  • Tears on Your Shoulder (2)

    Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before You.  Psalm 88:1 (English)  NASB Lord, the God – Make sure you realize why both of these words are found at the beginning of this poem.  YHVH, of course, and ʾĕlōhîm.  Today we consider both of these as designations of…

  • Transcendental Texts

    I will not act in My blazing wrath, I will no more destroy Ephraim.  For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I do not desire to root out.  Hosea 11:9  Robert Alter Not a man – Christian theology employs texts like this one to support its view…

  • Tears on Your Shoulder

    Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before You.  Psalm 88:1 (English)  NASB Lord, the God – Make sure you realize why both of these words are found at the beginning of this poem.  YHVH, of course, and ʾĕlōhîm.  Today we consider both of these as designations of…

  • Kinship

    “ I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”  John 1:34  NASB Son – Listen, I don’t want to stoke the fire here.  I’m not interested in kindling another Trinitarian blaze.  But recently I read something by Joel Hoffman, a well-respected Hebrew linguist and translator, that revealed another issue in the…

  • Too Much for Our Own Good

    “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”   Exodus 15:11  NASB Awesome – The Greek heritage of the West is focused on one fundamental goal: to rationally understand.  The method is examination of phenomena in the world in order to discover causal connections. …

  • My Personal God

    “O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, and chasten me not in Your burning anger.”  Psalm 38:1  NASB O LORD – The Hebrew text does not use the word “Lord,” but rather the personal name of God, a name that is never spoken among the Jews.  Worshippers were careful to substitute the word “Lord”…

  • Who Is God?

    God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it?  Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?  Numbers 23:19  NASB Not a man – Thomas Aquinas would have gladly endorsed this claim of Moses. …