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 6, 2012 | Jesus' Artifacts, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
Yes, systems of theology fail in their primary attempt and alleged purpose to sum up the Bible in a complete, universal and absolute way. Every theological system I’ve encountered (or might invent) was based on favored passages of scripture. Then a logical system...
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 3, 2012 | Jesus' Artifacts, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
Now preachers have no more innate knowledge of the outline of the body of Christ or the needs and functions of any particular cell at any particular moment than I do. So I hope that when they enter their quiet inner rooms to study, they are in deep communion with the...
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...
by admin | May 30, 2012 | Jesus' Artifacts, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
Now to get back to where I started: How does all this information about the DNA-RNA-protein complex expand the context of my biblical understanding and prohibit me from calling this narrative PREACHERS DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE BIBLE? When a child is conceived, the...
by admin | May 29, 2012 | Adultery in the Prophets, Section One, Sexual Immorality
I want to track נָאַף (nā’ap̄) in the Old Testament prophets to see if I can find a better understanding of πορνεία as used by Jesus, Paul and the New Testament writers. Hosea was a prophet in the northern part of the divided kingdom of Israel during the time...