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…
Recently I visited Saint Teodoro in Pavia, Italy. On the wall is a magnificent painting. Actually, a whole story in paintings. When I was there, I spoke with a crew from the History channel filming a documentary of this wall. Why? Because it depicts the Italian victory over Charlemagne in the 8th Century. According to…
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Exodus 20:2 NASB Brought you out – Israel Finkelstein makes some challenging points in the book, The Quest for the Historical Israel. He notes that archeology is not in the business of exegesis. Exegesis is the process of…
When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. Numbers 21:1 NASB King of Arad – Something unexpected is happening. As I investigate the background for a book about Solomon, I…
When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. 2 Kings 22:11 NASB The book of the law – We certainly aren’t confused about which book King Josiah heard. The text reads sepher hat-torah. Josiah heard the revelation of YHVH to Moses and it was so distressing that…
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah . . . Jeremiah 1:1-2a NASB Came – How do you read the Bible? Obviously I am not asking about the…
“Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:9 NASB Who knows – Does God change His mind? The king of Nineveh certainly hoped so. So should we. What hope can we have if the will of God is inflexibly fixed from eternity past?…
