How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103 NASB Your words – What do Genesis 1:3, 3:1 and 3:10 have in common with Psalm 119:103? The answer is ʾāmar, the Hebrew verb for “say, speak, command, promise.” Of course, there are a lot of other verses that use this…
“Yes, I am coming quickly.,” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20b Quickly – Another annual cycle. Maybe this last one wasn’t quite the same as the pagan idea of eternal return, that is, just going around and around over and over. Maybe this last one created some changes; changes that will spin out new opportunities…
“I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;” Ezekiel 20:37 NASB Rod – One of the tenets of conservative Christianity is that the Bible must be interpreted by the Bible. What it means is this: if I accept the claim that God is the real…
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB Inspired– Why do we bother to investigate the historical and cultural settings of the biblical authors and audiences? If God is able to speak to each of us through the Spirit, does any of this…
You shall not take the name Yahweh your God in vain. Exodus20:7a World English Bible In vain – The second commandment is the reverence commandment. It demands that we treat God’s name with respect. As we discovered, that means we speak as men and women under His authority. Our words must reflect His character because words…
Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 1:13 NASB Sound words – Systematic theology, so essential for doctrine, was simply impossible before Alexander the Great. Why? Because systematic theology requires a special kind of theological dualism, that is, the separation of mind from…
And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. James 3:6 NASB Sets on fire – June 4, 1391. Seville, Spain. Ferrand Martinez sets fire to the Jewish quarter…
All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. Ecclesiastes 1:8 NASB To tell it – Enjoying the season? Eating too much? Taking a break from the rat-race of work? Ah, just in time to follow the observations of…
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV Hear – It should come as no surprise that Hebrew thinking about Scripture is radically different from Greek thinking about Scripture. The difference is not in the language of Scripture itself. The Bible is written in Hebrew, Aramaic, a particular kind…
If a lion could talk, we could not understand him. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations Understand – You won’t find this sentence in the Bible, so don’t bother to look. But you will find the idea behind Wittgenstein’s insight.[1] The idea is that the meaning of words cannot be fully explained with other words. What is…
