by admin | Jun 29, 2012 | Paul's OT Quotes, Section Two, Septuagint Quotations
Old Testament quotations in the New Testament frustrated me terribly as I began to study the Bible. When I turned back to the passages listed in the footnotes and read the actual text, it was often significantly different. How could Paul and even Jesus quote the Old...
by admin | Jun 28, 2012 | Saul and Barnabas, Section Two
So Barnabas and Saul,1 sent out by the2 Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia,3 and4 from there they sailed to Cyprus.5 When they arrived in Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.6 They traveled east across the island this way to...
by admin | Jun 27, 2012 | Less Than Sin?, Section Two
To understand the relationship of sin (παράπτωμα) to sin (ἁμαρτία) I’ll spend some time considering Paul’s usage of the words in other writings. Both words were used in Romans 5:12-15 (NET). So then, just as sin (ἁμαρτία) entered the world through one man and death...
by admin | Jun 26, 2012 | Forgiveness, Jedidiah, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
I want to turn my attention to the circumstances when God named Solomon Jedidiah. It all started one spring when King David didn’t go to war with his army. He couldn’t sleep. He got up and walked on the roof of his palace. He saw a woman bathing. Now David wasn’t...
by admin | Jun 25, 2012 | Saul and Barnabas, Section Two
After his encounter with the resurrected (and ascended) Jesus on the road to Damascus, after Ananias healed his blindness, after he was baptized and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, Saul (also known as Paul) stayed with the disciples in Damascus for several days,...
by admin | Jun 24, 2012 | Less Than Sin?, Section Two
I’ll continue the survey of Galatians to understand the relationship of sin (παράπτωμα) to sin (ἁμαρτία). Paul hinted at the attitude, activity and the content of the faith of those who were so quickly deserting (μετατίθεσθε, a form of μετατίθημι) the one who called...
by admin | Jun 23, 2012 | What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?, Who am I?
Though I knew nothing of Freud and his theories about sex and aggression at the time, I had immediately equated sex and violence. I grew up in a fairly tough blue collar neighborhood. We boys fought all the time, mostly wrestling matches with an occasional blow with...
by admin | Jun 22, 2012 | Section Two
I can’t tell if I perceive some confusion in the Apostle Paul’s thinking (literally writing, specifically 1 Corinthians 5:3) because I have been confused so often in my own thinking, or if I am recasting Paul in my own image because I have been confused so often in my...
by admin | Jun 22, 2012 | Section Two, Sexual Immorality
For a long time I thought I understood exactly what sexual immorality (πορνεία) in 1 Corinthians 5:1 (NET) [Table] meant. It is actually reported that sexual immorality (πορνεία) exists among you, the kind of immorality (πορνεία) that is not permitted even among the...
by admin | Jun 17, 2012 | What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?, Who am I?
I’m not sure I know the answer to God’s treatment of Nadab and Abihu. And with me, there’s some real duplicity here. Though I’m not fond of the particular situation recorded in Leviticus, if Nadab and Abihu had been a couple of notorious child molesters, I’d be...