This is a good biography of William Tyndale by a Protestant — and of course the Protestant take on Tyndale is that, for translating the Bible into English, the Catholic Church hunted him down and killed him (by strangulation, explosion, and burning — you can’t take any chances with these heretics!). The Catholic Church, also … [Read more…]
Jesus is, as you would expect, quoted a lot in the Gospels. But how much is He quoted in the rest of the New Testament? I found the answer to be surprising. If you consider all his letters, Paul quotes Jesus … exactly once (I Corinthians 11:24-25, regarding what Jesus said at the last supper, … [Read more…]
As the one Gentile author in the Bible, Luke alone came from a background in which the very concept of Scripture was, presumably, unfamiliar. Yet, as a new Christian, he was quite aware of the Holy Spirit. So was he conscious of being inspired to write God’s word in Acts even if, beforehand, such writing … [Read more…]
When I was growing up, my mom would from time to time offer me a “t.l.” or “trade last.” She’d explain, “Somebody said something nice about you to me, and I’ll tell you what it was, but first you have to tell me something nice someone said about me.” I never heard anyone else use … [Read more…]
The top two commandments are to love God and to love others. See Matthew 22:37-40: “Jesus said unto him [i.e., a Pharisee — and a lawyer, to boot — asking Him what was “the great commandment in the law”], Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy … [Read more…]
My regular, as opposed to spontaneous, prayers each day include grace at each meal as well as the Lord’s Prayer and one prayer devoted to each of the four classic categories, spelling A-C-T-S: one for adoration, one for confession, one for thanksgiving, and one for supplication. I’m not bragging, by the way — far from … [Read more…]
I was drawing a timeline of human history for my grandson, and was struck by a pleasing symmetry: The Patriarchs lived around 2000 B.C., and of course we live around A.D. 2000, and right in the middle we have the birth of Jesus. I’m not submitting this as proof of anything, and of course one … [Read more…]
Two random notes from the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 7:1 is sometimes triumphantly quoted by anti-Christians: “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Along the same lines, so is Jesus’ injunction in John 8:7, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” But the passage in Matthew and the incident of the rescued … [Read more…]
The Old Testament volume here was highly recommended by a very good friend who knows his Bible, and I then discovered that there was a New Testament volume following the same approach, so I checked them both out on interlibrary loan. Good move on my part! I think these would be excellent reference books for … [Read more…]
I’m a lawyer, and this short post makes a few points about how interpreting the Bible is like and unlike what lawyers do. *** Among the major similarities are these: Two major lawyer activities are interpreting texts and making arguments (including counterarguments) about what texts mean. The latter skills, significantly, require you to learn to … [Read more…]