Ancient Near Eastern sources can give valuable insights into the world the Old Testament was written in The biblical book of 2 Kings gives a theological explanation for the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC and the subsequent exile of its people. It is a rich account of sage prophets, ruthless kings, intriguing miracles …
You may have noticed that the Bible isn’t always in chronological order. Psalms and Proverbs come after Nehemiah and Esther. But much of Psalms and Proverbs is set before Nehemiah and Esther. Skipping to the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians was one of the first books written, but it appears after John, one of the last …
Why Aren’t the Bible’s Books in Chronological Order? Read More »
(Note: This is an article on “The Day of the Lord” that is presented within The Biblical Story Course under ERA 5: Jesus, lesson 24). Synopsis The Day of the Lord is a day of both judgment and rescue. The Old Testament prophets used the phrase to indicate the day when God would punish Israel …
Muslim scholars say that the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), the Psalms, and the gospel message found in the New Testament are from God. But there’s a catch: By their account, these writings have been corrupted, so the Koran is necessary to set the record straight.[i] One big “problem” with the Christian …
Did the Jews Corrupt the Old Testament to Slight Mohammed? Read More »
What was Jacob’s Ladder doing on a Communist stamp? Wasn’t Yugoslavia one of those eastern European nations sharing the Soviet Union’s hostility to the Bible? Yet there lies Jacob, sleeping below a group of four angels making their way up and down the rungs. This 1970 stamp, issued deep in the Cold War, was part …
It’s fun to study surnames, or last names, as distinguished from Christian names, or first names. Back in history, when things got crowded, they had to add second names to sort out all the people named John or James or Mary or Ruth. So they turned to four contextual features—location (as in Lois Hill); parentage …