by admin | May 26, 2012 | Adultery in the Law, Section One, Sexual Immorality
I first entertained the idea that πορνεία in the New Testament might be defined by Leviticus 20:11-21 because of the similarity in word order between Matthew 15:19 (NET) and the Law in Exodus 20:2-17 (NET) Exodus 20:2-17 (NET) Matthew 15:19 (NET) “I, the Lord, am your...
by admin | May 25, 2012 | Adultery in the Law, Section One, Sexual Immorality
I want to study the background information in the Old Testament to see if I can understand what Jesus, Paul and the New Testament writers meant by πορνεία. Since I’m treating πορνεία like the unknown X, I’ll track the Hebrew word נָאַף (nā’ap̄), equivalent to...
by admin | May 19, 2012 | Section One, Sexual Immorality
Since I am uncomfortable with immorality as potentially too broad a translation of πορνεία I’ll treat it like an unknown X. So if I remove X from the equations so to speak I get a clearer view of Jesus’ meaning without X. I might even gain some insight into ways to...
by admin | May 18, 2012 | Section One, Sexual Immorality
Perhaps this is as good a time as any to say that I take it for granted that Jesus spoke Greek, and that those who heard him understood him perfectly well in what was by then, more than three centuries after the conquest of Alexander the Great, their native tongue. ...
by admin | May 17, 2012 | A Monotonous Cycle, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
Though I’ve been proposing that God intervened in Israel’s history to divide the kingdom of Israel, his primary method seems to have been nonintervention. God allowed people who rebelled against him by seeking a king in the first place to continue on that same...
by admin | May 16, 2012 | A Monotonous Cycle, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
I don’t know how public Solomon was with his discontent, but I doubt he kept his secrets any better than other politicians. Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion, he wrote in the end of Ecclesiastes. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is...
by admin | May 15, 2012 | Forgiveness, Introduction
Jesus gave his disciples the following rule (Matthew 10:32, 33 NET): Whoever, then, acknowledges (ὁμολογήσει, a form of ὁμολογέω) me before people, I will acknowledge (ὁμολογήσω, another form of ὁμολογέω) before my Father in heaven.1 But whoever denies (ἀρνήσηται, a...
by admin | May 15, 2012 | A Monotonous Cycle, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
I didn’t read the Old Testament much until I was a philosophical and legalistic young man fighting my way back from atheism. I had already decided to side with God, more or less. The more I read the Old Testament the more I hated the Israelites, stupid, rebellious...
by admin | May 14, 2012 | A Monotonous Cycle, What Kind of Carpenter is Jesus?
I have considered a passage in the Bible that seemed at first glance like a laundry list of Solomon’s wealth and power. I added more biblical background and found the same passage a fulfillment of God’s promise to Solomon. Then I read more and the laundry list...
by admin | May 13, 2012 | Forgiveness, Gospel Proclamations, Holy Spirit, Introduction
Jesus’ disciples waited in Jerusalem as He instructed them. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, a crowd gathered (Acts 2:14-41 NET). Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed them: “You men of Judea and all1 you who live in Jerusalem, know this...