Old Testament

The book of Hebrews chapter eleven has been described by many as the Bible’s ‘Hall of Faith’. The verse by verse description of both heroes and heroines of our faith fills the reader with both encouragement and admonishment. I like others I’m sure who have read these texts find it inspiring that those who believe in God and keep the faith overcome great adversity often times throughout some crazy challenges. Of course ancient people like Noah, Abraham and Moses are mentioned in this chapter. The…

There is no reasonable reason to doubt the story and information the Exodus implies, but I do think the mix up of the movie and the bible of the plagues have some people confused and not knowing what to believe in the overall moral and details in the story. The movie did a good job, in some areas, of trying to get most of the information spot on as it does in the book. Since the book was written a long time ago and is a primary source, it may have a better and accurate outlook of the moral of…

In “Reading the Gospels Wisely”, Jonathan Pennington offers many ideas and thoughts on how to read the Gospels in a beneficial way. He outlines good habits as well as points out where problems can arise. Although, Pennington makes several important arguments; hindsight, open-mindedness, and vertical reading are three aspects that ought to guide Christians while reading the Gospels. Hindsight is a broad term that encompasses a major point Pennington was arguing. Pennington talks about the genre…

Within various writings, a Godly erotic theme may be obscurely witnessed, as in the story concerning “Jacob’s ladder;” tells of a ladder to heaven, where Jacob encounter’s God. Described in the book of Genesis, the Biblical Patriarch Jacob experiences this after he decides to rest for the night; while asleep he experiences an astonishing epiphany. Jacob astonishingly proclaims this event takes place where he never realized before, occurring as “the house of God-this gate of heaven.” Plausibly…

“Naked Archaeologist” Simcha Jocobovici travels to Israel during his television show “The Naked Archaeologist” in order to gain insight on the holy lands, and to entertain those who want to learn about biblical times through archaeology. In episode 8, “Biblical Food,” Jocobovici travels to sites around Jerusalem in order to gain knowledge about the foods that were cooked and consumed during “Biblical times.” Throughout this episode, and through the other episodes, Jocobovici remains…

The Gospel book is an important way to spread the Christian culture. The early Gospel books were all artificially handwritten due to the limitations in printing technology. These early Gospel books not only contain the text of the Bible, but also the colorful hand-painted pictures to help people interpret it and visually communicate with the Christian spirit. These works are very delicate and valuable, and they are an important part of early Christian art. However, these artificial hand-painted…

Timshel. It is a Hebrew word found in the Bible, the fourth chapter of Genesis to be exact, which is also known as the story of the brothers, Cain and Abel. Essentially, timshel means “Thou mayest.” In the context of the tale, Jehovah tells Cain that he may conquer sin. This wording is significant because it varies between certain versions of the Bible. In the King James version, Jehovah guarantees that Cain will rule over sin, “Thou shalt.” Another version is the American Standard Bible. In…

Jonah dwelled in the Northern Kingdom of Israel the city of Gath-hepher which is in Zebulun. Jonah stood a servant and prophet of God; son of Amittai, who reconditioned the land of Israel. The name Jonah means “Dove” which is symbolic of sensitivity of the Holy Spirit. His father’s name was Amittai, which means “Truthful, Faithful and Trustworthiness.” Jonah resided during the early reign of Jerobam around (790-750 BC). Jonah’s early ministry earned him esteem in Israel, because he prophesied…

The Color of Victory In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, the color white is referred to and has several different meanings depending on the action or story being depicted. A respectable example would be found in 2:14. Here it can be seen that Paul speaks of white as the hair on the head of man. White, in this context, displaying the wisdom and the age of the son of man. Again in 2:17, white is used to describe a stone that will be given to the victor. Here It can be understood that the…

Recitation Six: Jesus, Nicodemus, and the Samaritan Woman As we continue to study and probe the Synoptic Gospels it is more and more obvious that further investigation is needed to uncover the distinctive emphases of each author. Therefore, we have been using certain methodologies such as redactional criticism to help examine these emphases. This particular methodology is meant to determine what's important to authors by understanding how they used their sources. Although this proves effective…