I graduated high school in 1969. It was the summer of Woodstock, but I knew nothing about it at the time. I spent my summer working for a burger chain, preparing for college in the fall, and having a series … Continue reading →| Jesus Without Baggage
While 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is the queen of all ‘proofs’ of biblical inerrancy, I would say that certain words of Jesus come in second. And, since Jesus is central to all believers, how can we ignore his words if they … Continue reading →| Jesus Without Baggage
For me, this is perhaps one of the best books I have ever read—and I have read a LOT of books! On page 4, Pete sets the stage by stating that the Bible is not a divine instruction manual or … Continue reading →| Jesus Without Baggage
Pete Enns is perhaps my favorite writer and blogger, and I am happy to share this article with you today. Pete says… I was taught in seminary and graduate school, as were many others of my generation and several before … Continue reading →| Jesus Without Baggage
If you’re familiar with contemporary musical theater, you may already have guessed which Old Testament story the title above references. If you haven’t guessed, here’s a hint: the title of the Broadway musical based on this story is long, modern, and a little ridiculous. Still stumped? The musical I’m referring to is entitled Joseph and […]| Catholic Stand
St. Gregory of Agrigentum on God’s light as our joy and supreme delight and bathing in the radiance of Christ, the Sun of Justice. This excerpt from his commentary on Ecclesiastes exhorts us to a life of contemplation, since to contemplate his radiant beauty is... The post God’s Light our Delight – Gregory of Agrigentum on Ecclesiastes appeared first on Crossroads Initiative.| Crossroads Initiative
The copies we have of Old Testament manuscripts do have signs of human error within them. But the question is, Does that lead to despair? Dr. John Meade answers that question with a resounding no.| Crossway
Church leaders have frequently used the Hebrew word hesed to teach about God’s love. But in the last general conference, Elder Sandino Roman referenced a fascinating Hebrew word I’d never heard before: emunah.| LDS Living
Lawbook or Narrative? The Bible, even the Torah section alone, isn’t a lawbook. The Torah is a story. If you open to the beginning of the Torah, you won’t find a preamble to a law code. You’ll find the story of God creating the world and how God and humans lived in it together. In […] The post Do we need to believe in God, or just keep the Law? appeared first on The Torah Guide.| The Torah Guide
Early Jewish Interpretation A common misconception about the New Testament is that it teaches belief in three gods. I mean look, the trinity is a core idea in Christianity. Everyone knows the trinity is three God’s –case closed. Well, “Trinity” is a contraction of the words Tri-unity. So, “trinity” is intended to emphasize God’s oneness. […] The post Is the God of the Old Testament a Trinity? appeared first on The Torah Guide.| The Torah Guide
As a curious, inquisitive child, I dreamed of being a detective. Alfred Hitchcock’s Three Investigators chapter books set my young imagination on fire. I looked everywhere for mysteries to solve. As I grew up, however, I turned my focus to other pursuits and gradually stopped searching.| LDS Living
The New Testament clearly references the Old. Jesus was constantly correcting false impressions of what the Law of Moses required of Israel. It helps to gain a Hebraic concept of the terms. Whenever you see the word “law” used in … Continue reading →| Radix Fidem Blog
Russell Gmirkin did not argue that ALL of the books of the Jewish Bible originated in the Hellenistic era. When I began to post on the earlywritings forum that "Why the Hellenistic era for ALL "Old Testament" books should be taken seriously" I was attempting to set out why it is both possible and pl| Vridar
To follow on from my Part 2a comment ….. The biblical works have traditionally been understood as the product of an evolution over centuries, usually said to be from the ninth or eighth to the third centuries, under the influence of Mesopotamian, Hittite, Syrian, Ugaritic, Egyptian cultures. There is a serious problem with that view, … Continue reading "Defending Russell Gmirkin’s Hellenistic Dating of the Old Testament – Part 7"| Vridar
Why the Hellenistic era .... Part 2a In this post I will explain "my personal reason" for strongly suspecting a Hellenistic origin of the biblical literature -- though I am sure I have come across the same ideas throughout different books and articles over the years. It follows on from #5 in the pr| Vridar
In Malachi chapter 1, God pointed out a major problem with the worship that the people of God were bringing to him. The people of Judah had returned to their homeland after many years in exile. They had rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem and had resumed the worship required in the law … + Read More The post Bringing God less than the best (Malachi 1) appeared first on Written for our instruction.| Written for our instruction
There’s no feeling quite like hugging your returned missionary for the first time after months apart. After this long-anticipated homecoming, you may want to update your loved one on everything that happened while they were serving. But one of the best things you can do with your returned…| LDS Living
By the way, I have informed Stephen Goranson that he is welcome to respond here to my resposting of his criticisms of Russell Gmirkin — despite my earlier prohibition on his posts to this blog. For this series alone I have lifted my relegation of SG’s comments to spam. In Part 4 I pointed to … Continue reading "Defending Russell Gmirkin’s Hellenistic Dating of the Old Testament – Part 5"| Vridar
Stephen Goranson has been a regular critic of Russell Gmirkin. Stephen posted the following points (in the earlywritings forum) that he claimed gave reasonable grounds for dating the entire Hebrew Bible (he referred to the "TaNaK") before Hellenistic era: There are reasons to consider some TaNaK te| Vridar
Elisha the Prophet (the saint remembered by the Armenian Church this year on July 17) was a wonderworker whose miracles—healing the diseased, the multiplication of loaves, raising a child from death—anticipated those of Christ. Indeed, Jesus explicitly referred to these during his own ministry. The Old Testament prophet became greatly honored in the Christian tradition,Read More| The Armenian Church
I've addressed the Documentary Hypothesis several times before (see a list of post beginning here). The DH is the basis through which the Hebrew Bible is understood to have begun its development as early as the days of David and Solomon, and in the time of the Babylonian Captivity and through to the| Vridar
In response to the post that I copied here, one consistent critic of Russell Gmirkin's thesis in particular (and of the Hellenistic era hypothesis for the creation of the Hebrew Bible more generally) posted the following response: Elephantine is the site of a Persian era garrison settlement of| Vridar
Since I don't expect to have much time to write new posts again before the end of the year, I will from time to time copy what I once posted on another forum in defence of Russell Gmirkin's thesis dating the Old Testament books to the Hellenistic era. The orthodox view is that biblical books abou| Vridar
By now many of you will have learned of Russell Gmirkin's sudden passing. I am still trying to process the shock. I was privileged to have had frequent communications with him in the past few years and he was on my short list of people I had hoped to meet in person. His website: https://russellgmirk| Vridar
There is a line in a famous Christmas carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, that says that Jesus is “risen with healing in his wings”. You’ve probably sung that line countless times and never really understood what you have been singing. Wings? I don’t remember that bit in the Christmas story! Charles Wesley, who wrote … + Read More The post What does “risen with healing in his wings” mean? appeared first on Written for our instruction.| Written for our instruction
In “Delivered Out of Empire: Pivotal Moments in the Book of Exodus,” Walter Brueggemann shows how Exodus consistently reveals a God in radical solidarity with the powerless.| Word&Way
We talk a great deal about the mindset and worldview of the Hebrew people, because that’s the only way to understand the Bible. But not everything about that outlook is admirable, especially …| Radix Fidem Blog
Teaching the Old Testament can be challenging, but by highlighting its Gospel connections and relevance, we can help students engage with it.| Dare 2 Share
By Brian T. German Read Isaiah 2 and 13:6–13 and Luke 23:26–56. The Old Testament is saturated with special days. The creation of humanity certainly makes the list (Gen. 1:26–27), as does God’s day of rest (Gen. 2:2–3). The day the Israelites were brought out of Egypt was to be remembered throughout the generations (Ex. 13:3), along with the day that the temple was consecrated (1 Kings 8) — and rebuilt (Ezra 3). And who could forget the day the sun stood still (Joshua 10:14)? But ...| The Lutheran Witness
By Geoffrey R. Boyle Read Exodus 12:1–28 and John 13:1–15. When we talk about figures in the Old Testament, we’re not just talking about things that are like other things. Nor are we imposing later things onto earlier things, as if forcing the Old Testament to say something it doesn’t want to say. Instead, when we turn to the Old Testament — the people, places, institutions and events — we’re looking at real things that actually happened, real people who actually did what is rec...| The Lutheran Witness
The April issue of The Lutheran Witness provides “An Old Testament Walk Through Holy Week” — discussing how the events of Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday are prefigured in the Old Testament. From the President: Most Righteous God, Most Kind FatherLife in the Church Year Series: Holy Triduum & Hot Cross Buns Features: Introduction: How to use this issueBehold, Your King Will Come To You: A reflection for Palm Sunday — Kevin GoldenThe Anointed Prophet, Priest and King: A reflection fo...| The Lutheran Witness
The Old Testament sacrifices seem odd to us. Yet their cost, substitution, and the need for a priest, all help us understand Jesus.| Written for our instruction
The Bible has a storyline to it. It is not like a news website where you choose the articles you want to read and the order doesn’t matter. The order of the Bible does matter. It is more like a novel than a dictionary, a building storyline of God with his people that develops over … + Read More| Written for our instruction
Paul often refers to the Old Testament in his letters, and he uses a key verse from Genesis at key points in his argument in both Romans and Galatians. It is Genesis 15:6. Let’s have a look at this verse in its original context: After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram … + Read More| Written for our instruction
The NT epistle for the Second Sunday before Lent is Rev 4, the first half (with Rev 5) of John's vision and audition (seeing and hearing) of worship 'in heaven' as he is 'in the Spirit'. This is a fascinating passage, in part because it is so dense with theological ideas, but also because this| Psephizo
I know, you get your butt kicked for so long and you work so hard to expose so many truths-most clandestine that when the victories start rolling in you just want to relax a bit and enjoy the offseason. But… We live in an era where information is wielded as a weapon, creating a battlefield […]| The Hayride
Join Nancy Guthrie as she talks with Andrew Sach about how the more we keep our eyes and ears open for Old Testament imagery and allusions, the less strange the book of Revelation will seem.| Crossway
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,' declares the| Rethink
The apostle Paul quoted Scripture more than a hundred times in his thirteen canonical letters, but he never identified the version of Scripture that he used. Why bother?—you may think—everyone knows he used the Septuagint (LXX). He was obviously not quoting Scripture in the original language, because he was writing in Greek, not Hebrew, so […]| Text & Canon Institute
Origen’s six-columned Old Testament, produced in the second century, was a monumental achievement in the Bible’s history.| Text & Canon Institute
If you ask someone at church to name their favorite story from the Old Testament, they may mention Moses or Noah, but they might also talk about Jesus or Paul. Some may even begin describing a story from outside the Bible. When asked about their favorite story from the Old Testament, around 4 in 5 […]| Baptist Courier
All relationships have emotional ups and downs to them. There are times when you feel close to the people you love and times you do not. That’s true in friendships, between parents and children, and also between married people. We don’t always feel the same about the other person day to day or month to month.| Written for our instruction
PDF Button Editor’s Note: This three-part series first appeared throughout the February, March, and April 2015 issues of our monthly paper (click HERE to subscribe). As we approach the nine-month mark of present hostilities between Hamas and Israel, which erupted last October, we are reprinting this series as a means of addressing the current conflict […]| Catholic Family News
What exactly were Aaron and Jeroboam doing with their golden calves?| Douglas Van Dorn
When production of two-testament Bibles began in the fourth century, the notion already had centuries of precedent.| Text & Canon Institute
My Questions with Answers from Ecclesiastes or, the Preacher (This is an interview with Solomon designed for a Sunday School class, with my questions in red and his answers in black using only word…| W E Pete Peterson
Reading the Book of Job can easily take 2 hours or more, and it can be a long two hours. I’ve found that by the time I’m finished, I can’t get my head around it all. There is just…| W E Pete Peterson