Proverbs 22:6 is one of the most quoted, potentially mistranslated and, thus, misunderstood verses in the Bible. As commonly rendered, it is interpreted as a glorious promise of “do it right & it’ll be right” in regard to parenting. It is also often used as an anchor of...
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November 9, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Language Issues, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
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In a previous post, “What Makes a Pagan Pagan?: The Word Faith Heresy” I began discussing the two foundational errors of heart and mind that feed the many errors of Word Faith teachers. At the root of their corrupted fruit tree is a pagan vision of God that...
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November 7, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, New Testament Studies
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I am a patient scholar. I regard the entire process of biblical interpretation as a complex interdependence of people over millennia trying to plumb the depths of Scripture through an ongoing dialogue. Many souls bring things to the corporate table. Most Bible interpreters have done their best, even...
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November 4, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds
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I’ve been sharing my thoughts of late on the subject of reading Scripture in translation and the common discomfort that Evangelicals usually feel when scholars suggest that there is some vital element of Bible study that those who are dependent on translation are missing. I am unapologetic over...
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November 2, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues
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Growing up it was not uncommon for the leaders in my church to claim that Scripture, being inspired, was easy to understand. Why would God speak to his people in ways hard to understand? Ignoring the fact the Peter directly contradicts this statement in regard to Paul’s writings...
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October 31, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues
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I hardly need to recount the blessings of translating the Bible. It is the most basic sense of preaching… translations seek to present the word of God, the Gospel of God, the Gospel of Christ in a language that people from every part of the world can understand....
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October 28, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues
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I was asked once to deliver a lecture titled, “Is the Bible Reliable?” I asked, “Reliable for what?” One asks, “Can you trust translations of the Bible?” I counter ask, “Can you trust translations of the Bible to be or do what?” Can you trust translations of the...
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October 26, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues
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While foolishly engaging a Twitter troll the other day, as this egomaniacal barbarian cursed the idea of God and Scripture, declaring Christianity and all other religion the source of all evil, (200 million dead at the hands of atheists not withstanding) I asked the man if he understood...
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October 24, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies, Society
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In two recent posts we began to discuss the implication of reading Genesis as an Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) Ancestor Epic, a collection of stories that a people tell themselves about how they almost weren’t, about their deliverance by their God to fulfill his purposes in and through...
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October 21, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
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In a recent post we began discussing the nature of Genesis as an ancestor epic—the stories that a people tell themselves about how they almost weren’t a people. Crises have arisen in a people’s past which, save for the sovereign hand of their God, who has a purpose...
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October 19, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
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When reading any document it helps to know what you are reading. Is this document a comic meant to be funny, mocking or otherwise derisive? Is this document a fiction meant to entertain? Is this document a body of laws meant to form the rules of a society?...
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October 17, 2016 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
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So, in a recent post I discussed the church’s first heresy (Judaizers/the circumcision party) who sought to require gentiles to become Jews before becoming Christians, or in addition to becoming Christian, as if a proper expression of Christianity is encapsulated in a fixation on the letter of the...
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October 5, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies
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So, I’ve been discussing Torah food laws and how the two main texts that Christians appeal to for ignoring them are improperly interpreted. Mark 7 is talking about Halakic regulations popular during Jesus’ day which sought to drive a wedge of hatred between Jew and Gentile, abandoning the...
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October 3, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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One of the challenges of being a Biblical theologian rather than a systematic theologian (no disrespect to Systematic theology or Systematic Theologians intended) is to speak about theological issues rooted in particular texts without being drawn unwilling into the systematic entanglements of most informed Christian’s existing mental categories....
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September 30, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies
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In an earlier post, we discussed how common interpretations of the words spoken from heaven to Peter in Acts 10:13, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat” and in Acts 10:15, “What God has made clean, do not call common,” are often misinterpreted as abolishing Torah food laws.[1] My purpose...
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September 28, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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We’ve been discussing the Traditions of the Elders, Halakah and food laws in Mark 7.[1] Convinced that the Christian church is not responsible to keep Torah food laws (And rightly so, I believe) many have gone too far in their understanding of Jesus’ remarks, which are summarized for...
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September 26, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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In previous posts,[1] we’ve discussed the misconception that many people have about the discussion that Jesus has with the Pharisees over “The Traditions of the Elders” in Mark 7. That’s the place where Jesus “declares all foods clean.” We tend to read the event through our lens—like Christians...
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September 23, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Intertestamental History & Literature, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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I love word studies. This is one passion that I share with many a pastor… for whose ministries I am grateful. If everyone had my particular gifting, the church would be in quite a state—lots of biblically and theologically refined and impassioned teachers, but a lot less compassionate...
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September 22, 2016 Andrew Sargent
New Testament Studies
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Recently, we’ve discussed the controversial aside which Mark seems to have added in Mark 7:19 to the effect that Jesus’ debate with the Pharisees over the “Traditions of the Elders” leads naturally to Jesus’ denouncement of Torah food laws[1]—A happy day for squirrel hunters and scallop eaters the...
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September 21, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy the gastric freedom of gentile existence. Whether my arteries enjoy it is another discussion altogether. I love lobster, shrimp, and bacon, and though I have never actually eaten dolphin or alligator, I’d happily try them if you slathered them with...
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September 19, 2016 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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