Justice and Mercy Revisited, Part 6

This is a continuation of a consideration of “Matthew’s and the Holy Spirit’s word choices”1 in Matthew 12:18-21. Once more I’ll mine the rich vein of רָצָה (rāṣâ) encountered in another essay in its Qal perfect 3rd person feminine form רָצְתָה (ESV: delights):...

3 John, Part 8

This is a continuation of my notes on 3 John for the preaching class I’m taking. John wrote (3 John 1:11 ESV): Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good (τὸ ἀγαθόν). Whoever does good1 is from God (ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν); whoever does evil has not seen God. I...

Exploration, Part 12

I was asked to compare the “translation” from the previous essay side-by-side with the ESV. Galatians 5:25-6:5 (ESV/EXP11) Galatians 5:25-6:5 (ESV) (Links refer back to the rationale for this particular understanding of the Greek text.) (Links refer to differences in...

Exploration, Part 10

I shared the previous essay with my Pastor. “Jesus didn’t call his hearers/followers actors,” he said. That’s true. He called their teachers and leaders actors. That the term also applied to his hearers/followers was my inference from Jesus’ words to...

Christianity, Part 15

There are 3 occurrences of πάντας in 1 Corinthians [see Table below], the Greek word translated all people in: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people (πάντας, a form of πᾶς) to myself.1 I’ve begun to consider the second occurrence (1...