Today is the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. I noted that on Facebook earlier today, and referenced Leviticus 25:10, the verse cited on the Liberty Bell: “you shall … proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.” That verse seems appropriate, since the Emancipation Proclamation represents movement of the nation toward the fulfillment … Continue reading »
Tagged with Bible …
Socialist Jesus
I sometimes wonder about people who write stuff like this: As near as we can tell, Jesus would advocate a tax rate somewhere between 50% (in the vein of “If you have two coats, give one to the man who has none”) and 100% (if you want to get into heaven, be poor). What I … Continue reading »
Fresh Year!
Happy New Year! The writers of the New Testament used two different words for “new.” One of them, neos, is more familiar to English speakers. It’s where we get our prefix neo-. Some hospitals, for example, have a special unit to care for neonates, or newborns. The other word, kainos, is less familiar to us; … Continue reading »
Tools for Bible study
I was puzzled about a verse I read this morning, and decided to write about it. I also thought it might be useful to share here some of the tools that are available for doing Bible study. We live in the golden age of amateur Bible scholarship. Thanks to sites like Bible Gateway and Bible.CC, … Continue reading »
Fascinating Data in the Bible, Yahoo Listings, Etc.
I just stumbled upon a site called OpenBible that has the most fascinating blog. I just spent about half an hour reading one article after another, and finally decided I needed to share something. Fascinating place. Give it a look. I just added its RSS feed to my Google Reader. So what am I sharing? … Continue reading »
Bible Translation
Joel Hoffman has posted a series of articles about Bible translation at his “God Didn’t Say That” blog. A good place to get started is with this one about the false dichotomy between accuracy and readability.
Pat Robertson and Alzheimer’s Ethics
Well. Pat Robertson says it’s okay to get a divorce when your spouse has advanced Alzheimer’s disease. (To be fair, he does say there is an obligation to ensure that custodial care is provided.) Now here’s the thing: I appreciate he isn’t just responding with a knee-jerk “God said it / I believe it / … Continue reading »
Ordinary People
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. C.S. Lewis wrote that in “The … Continue reading »
Being less Biblical
I liked this point by Don Miller in his blog post “Being Less ‘Biblical’ and more ‘like the Bible.’” Even Christ’s biographers depict Him without sparing us His humanity. He gets angry, He gets annoyed, He is hard to understand (and indeed hard to follow) and while He seems to love the world, He’s as … Continue reading »
Truly Dead
Usually when I read the crucifixion and resurrection accounts in the Bible, I notice how they are at pains to show how the risen Lord Jesus was truly alive and not a phantasm. Today, however, these verses leapt out at me: When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took … Continue reading »