Keep One Eye on the Old Testament: Mark 1:2-13 & Ancient Reference
“I’m a New Testament Christian!” A common boast by those little interested in the Old Testament… I mean… Doesn’t that just sound defunct… OLD… Good old things get the label…
101 Most Misunderstood Verses
Bible Backgrounds
Biblical Language Issues
Biblical Studies
Biblical Theology
HAGALAH
Inductive Study Methods
Old Testament Studies
Text Criticism Issues
Getting out the Pagan Within Part 1: A Biblical Theology of I Samuel 15:27-31
Even a brief scan of 1 Samuel 15 should be enough to perplex the average reader. Here YHWH commands Samuel to command Saul to utterly destroy a people called the…
Did God Invent Covenant?
So you are reading a prophetic vision story in the Bible, perhaps say, 1 Kings 22:19ff, and God appears sitting on a heavenly throne. Have you ever asked yourself the…
Finding Covenant in a Lost World: A Fairytale
Once upon a time in a far away land, people made covenants. They were very happy with their covenants and everyone understood them. These covenants were so powerful in their…
Bible Backgrounds
Biblical Language Issues
Biblical Theology
HAGALAH
Inductive Study Methods
Intertestamental History & Literature
Meeting the Jesus of Mark
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
A Baptism in Confusion: 3 Baptisms in Mark 1:2-13
In our last episode, we introduced the bare bones essence of water baptism as an ancient covenant ratification act saturated with typical death imagery and corresponding OT interests in ordeal…
There Ought-a Be a Law: Emotions, Desire, and Social Paradigm
If you have a powerful sense of justice like I do, an inner hot spring of raging desire for recompense upon the wicked who abuse, rob and destroy others in…
Bible Backgrounds
Biblical Theology
HAGALAH
Inductive Study Methods
Meeting the Jesus of Mark
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
Old Testament Studies
A Baptism in Baptism
So you read the whole Old Testament. You read it several times. Having immersed yourself in the literature that your Bible, by its basic structure, seems to promise as the…
Bible Backgrounds
Inductive Study Methods
Meeting the Jesus of Mark
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
Old Testament Studies
Text Criticism Issues
Name that Quote: Exodus 23:20, Malachi 3:1, and Isaiah 40:3 in Mark 1:2
I will never forget my first Master’s paper at Regent University. I called it, “How They Got This Out of That.” I worked hard in my undergraduate programs (Yes, programs…
Striving for the Impossible… and loving it
I love the word asymptotic. I’m not a mathematician. No offense intended to all you left brained calculus types, but I actually hate doing math. It seems to me, however,…
Historical History & the Little Scholar Who Could
One of the benefits of a being raised in a blue collar environment and receiving academic training is that I tend to experience the full force of learning. This means…
Biblical Language Issues
Inductive Study Methods
Meeting the Jesus of Mark
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
“As” if: Mark 1:2-4 as a Single Sentence
There is a certain beauty in translation. It is not only a science, but also an art… some would say not even a science. There are all kinds of philosophies…
Jesus’ Resurrection, the First Fruits of our Eternity
The resurrection of Jesus is not just one grand miracle amid a ministry filled with grand miracles. It stands alone among all the works of Jesus for the magnitude of…
Worst Nelson Mandela Quote Ever
I have a lot of respect for Nelson Mandela on a personal level. He came back from years of imprisonment over his resistance to institutionalized racism and, yet, took an…
101 Most Misunderstood Verses
Bible Backgrounds
Biblical Studies
HAGALAH
Inductive Study Methods
NT's Use of the OT
Old Testament Studies
So, a Donkey and an Ox Wander into a Parallel: Exodus 23:3-6
To the Hebrews context mattered a good deal. Our own struggles to understand the use to which some New Testament writers put certain Old Testament texts may make us doubt…
Bible Backgrounds
Biblical Language Issues
Biblical Studies
Inductive Study Methods
Meeting the Jesus of Mark
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
Technical Terms We Only Think We Understand: Gospel in Mark 1:1
There are many bingo phrases that Christian’s throw around at church that I am convinced they barely understand. If you ask them what their favorite terms mean, you will, more…
Egalitarianism as a Power Struggle
Today we have a guest post from Darrel Cox, Ph.D. Professor of Biblical Studies at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, VA. He has a Ph.D. in Theological Studies from Trinity…
Biblical Studies
Biblical Theology
Inductive Study Methods
Meeting the Jesus of Mark
New Testament Studies
NT's Use of the OT
Jesus had an Identity Crisis: Christ & Son of God in Mark 1:1
I had a professor once, gifted in languages, but not in relationships. He could not only read more than his fair share of languages even for a scholar, but he…
Could Someone Please Define Racist for Me?
Let me say for starters that I don’t watch Duck Dynasty, don’t agree or disagree with anything about their statements for absolute sure (having no real context for it) save…
Fun with Mourning: The Disconnected Roots of Biblical Mourning Rituals
The late questionably great comedian Andy Kaufman, apart from his iconic role as Latka on Taxi, spent his days devising comedy routines that played the audience for fools. His manager…
Hey Millennials! Hollywood is a Bunch of Big Fat Liars!
In my post, “Confessions of a Troglodyte,” I attempted to share my frustrations as a biblical scholar trying to teach or dialogue with those who are quintessential Millennials, those who…