Monthly Archives: November 2015
Last night I began reading the prophet Habakkuk. A short book containing only three chapters it is unique in many way among the prophets in that it is primarily a theodicy. That is, it is a prophecy about the impending fall of Judah and Jerusalem and also the ultimate fall of the Babylonians at the hands of the Persians but the main thrust of the book is about how confusing God’s ways can be, how distant He can seem in our trials, how unexpected and even alarming some of His solutions to our problems or answers to our prayers can be.
The prophecy focuses on… Continue reading
“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16, RSV)
“Without a doubt, great is the mystery of godliness: God was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in [the] spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16, Eastern Orthodox Bible)
This verse comes up quite often in discussions with King James Only advocates as a… Continue reading
Started 2 Peter for my morning NT reading time. 2 Peter is one of the last books of the NT to be accepted universally by Christians and one of the most hotly debated in terms of authorship among Christians since ancient times.
It did not receive universal acceptance until the late fourth century at the councils of Carthage and Laodicea.
One of my favorite sections speaks of the ancient Christian and orthodox doctrine of theosis or divinization and follows this up with a list of virtues called in ancient rhetoric a sorites or gradation which is itself embedded in the exordium of the whole passage.… Continue reading
Bible factoid: Reading the Gospel of Luke earlier and came across Jesus calling the Pharisees “unmarked graves” in 11:44, “”Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.” (NIV2011).
Which reminded me of when the Lord called them “whitewashed” or marked tombs in Matthew 23:37, “”Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” (NIV2011)
It strikes me that the cut of the insult is even deeper in Luke than… Continue reading
Interesting Bible Factoid. My evening readings are from the OT and I am currently in Ezekiel. This weekend I was in chapter 26, the prophecy about Tyre, and came across Nebuchadnezzar’s name as “Nebuchadrezzar”.
The KJV and a few other translations have Nebuchadrezzar which is more in line with the Hebrew but most translations just put Nebuchadnezzar so it matches the usual form of the name throughout the Bible.
That is unfortunate since the Hebrew intends a play on words here.
Apparently Nebuchadrezzar is the proper form of the name and means, “May Nabu protect the eldest son/ heir” (Nabu was the important Assyro-Babylonian god… Continue reading
