and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: Luke 4:17 NIV Scroll – Peter Enns is the sort of radical thinker that Christians need to read. He’s not Messianic. He might not even lean toward Judaism. But his insights into how Christianity understands…
For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 NASB Accepted – This verse raises several important questions: 1) Why did…
You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance. Psalm 66:12 NASB Place of abundance – What do you really want out of life? Peace? Prosperity? Security? Companionship? Love? What will you really get? Oh, that one’s easy. Death. All the rest is sort of up…
Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one with his household: Exodus 1:1 NASB Came to Egypt – What does the history of Jacob’s family mean to you? Is it a story of a tribe from the ancient past that eventually became the Jewish…
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 ESV Religion– In recent conversation a young man expressed his determination for spiritual truth in this way: “When I rely on the Holy Spirit to lead me to the truth, I know…
Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen. Exodus 33:23 NASB My back – By now you realize that this translation must be incorrect. God is spirit. He is not corporeal. He does not have a “back.” This is a case where the…
But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 700 charioteers of the Arameans and 40,000 horsemen and struck down Shobach the commander of their army, and he died there. 2 Samuel 10:18 NASB 700 – I recently gave a lecture on the stories of David and Solomon. In the course of that lecture, I talked about…
Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 1:1-2a NASB To the church – Let’s make some corrections to the way that we read the letters of Paul. Let’s start by removing the anachronistic verbiage and its accompanying theological implication. Mark Nanos offers three…
“They have acted corruptly toward Him, they are not His children, because of their defect; but are a perverse and crooked generation.” Deuteronomy 32:5 NASB Not His children – Jeffrey Tigay points out that the syntax of this verse is particularly difficult. He suggests that it is the result of scribal error and he offers a few…
A few days ago I posted some off-hand remarks about paintings on a wall in a church in Pavia. The flood of reaction was interesting. Almost all of it was about the “accuracy” of biblical history. Some readers were so upset they determined to leave the community. Others were challenged to rethink their assumptions. I…
