Geography is part of historical context. Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnnn!!!!! No! Not just maps and boring stuff, but real places and the experience of living and moving and having one’s being there. Like the wise one said, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”~ Mark Twain… ooops wrong quote…...
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December 29, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Old Testament Studies
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Categories, they are like crack for the left brained; they can’t get enough of them, can’t build barriers between them that are high enough, or thick enough. If the government made categories illegal, the left-brained would pawn their grandmother’s TV sets to purchase a few high quality categories...
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December 27, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, Society
First, let me say that we need an easier way to speak of those souls who find themselves on the wrong end of a bully’s attention. Bullies get the easy to spout label, it’s like an automatic membership to a special club… Hi! I’m a bully. They should...
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December 20, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
Bullying is a complex topic,[1] one that elicits extreme emotional reactions no matter what a person has to say about it. So I thought I might just make a few highly controversial remarks based on anecdotal evidence drawn from my own experiences as both bully and bullied. And...
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December 18, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Society
When I talk about Biblical Theology I usually intend an approach to Scripture that envelopes many things. Like ordering a car and understanding that it will come with a lot of parts already put together… hopefully. Some of my friends prefer kits. Biblical Theology’s subject is specific. It’s...
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December 15, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Theology
One of the problems with being a biblical theologian is the discomfort I suffer whenever someone’s question crosses lines between biblical and “Christian” categories. We have our way of talking. Biblical authors had their ways of talking. A simple question like, “Were the Hebrew prophets monotheists or henotheists?”[1]...
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December 13, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Theology
Words for Holiness in Greek, Hebrew & Aramaic appear over 1000x in Scripture. Issues of holiness were important to those in the biblical era. Almost every aspect of life was impacted by shared and contended ideas of The Holy. Yet, nowhere in Scripture is holiness clearly explained; it...
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December 11, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Theology
How hard could it possibly be to find agreement on the meaning of a phrase as simple as biblical theology? In truth… harder than I’d like. Biblical theology is not, after all, merely theological ideas that are “biblical,” and the history of the phrase biblical theology is, unfortunately,...
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December 8, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Theology
Read my blog long enough and you will find that I frequently bring up the frustration I feel as a right brained individual being often under the biblical studies thumb of the left brained. I read brilliant analyses of biblical era language issues by people whose final categories...
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December 6, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Society
In my previous blog, “What’s in a Name?” I started a discussion on the importance of paying attention to the meaning of names in the Bible. Sometimes what comes out of these names can be shocking. The truth is, people tend to take their own names pretty seriously,...
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December 4, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Intertestamental History & Literature, Old Testament Studies
One of the great things about learning Hebrew is the ability to share in the feel of the stories beyond raw content. Good writing uses language as more than just a mechanism for passing data; it communicates with a measure of art, and, at times, music, working rhyme,[1]...
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December 1, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Inductive Study Methods, Theology