by admin | Jun 8, 2012 | Section One, Sexual Immorality
Athens and Corinth1 are the only locales around the Mediterranean where contemporary historians recognize idolatrous worship (including its drunken sexual practices) being carried out more or less openly in the first century. Trusting the Bible and experimenting with...
by admin | Jun 7, 2012 | Jephthah, Section One
When Jephthah sacrificed his daughter to justify himself he became the least like Moses as a leader. After God spoke the law1 to all the Israelites assembled at Mount Sinai, Moses went up the mountain to learn from God about the construction of, and worship in, the...
by admin | Jun 4, 2012 | Adultery in the Prophets, Section One, Sexual Immorality
Ezekiel, a priest, prophesied from Babylonia after the southern kingdom of Judah was taken captive.1 Ezekiel 23 is a history lesson from the Lord’s point of view told as an allegory (23:1-4 NET). The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, there were two women who...
by admin | Jun 4, 2012 | Jephthah, Section One
Jephthah was somewhat unique among the Judges. His leadership style hearkened back to someone more like Moses than the other Judges up to his time (compare Ehud,1 for instance). Though I wouldn’t expect a marauding leader of lawless men, the exiled son of a...
by admin | Jun 1, 2012 | Adultery in the Prophets, Section One, Sexual Immorality
If I look now at the word group from which πορνεία is derived the idea that Jesus, Paul and the New Testament writers had idolatrous worship with its drunken sexual practices in mind when they used it, is not as strange as it first sounded. Here are the words as they...
by admin | May 31, 2012 | Jephthah, Section One
Jephthah led (šāp̄aṭ, וַיִּשְׁפֹּ֥ט) Israel for six years; then he died and was buried in his city in Gilead.1 Samuel mentioned Jephthah, along with himself, as one the Lord sent as a deliverer from the hand of the enemies all around you, and you were able to...