When I was growing up, if you said “trigger” everyone thought about guns or Roy Roger’s horse… maybe shooting guns while riding Roy Roger’s horse. Today if you say “trigger” someone is worried that something they’ve said or done has set off a negative chain reaction in someone...
Continue reading
July 26, 2024 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues
4 Comments
Shared with permission from Criswell Theological Review The Art of Bible Translation. By Robert Alter. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019, 129 pp., $24.95, Hardback In The Art of Bible Translation, Robert Alter (PhD Harvard University, 1962), Professor of the Graduate School and emeritus professor of Hebrew and comparative...
Continue reading
July 10, 2024 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues, Reviews
In part two of A Still Small Voice in the Cool of the Day we conclude our discussion on two often overlook storm theophanies, one in Genesis 3 and the other in 1 Kings 19. (FYI: I highly recommend the works of Gregory Beale. I studied with him...
Continue reading
July 3, 2024 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Old Testament Studies
In this video, I begin a discussion about two overlooked storm theophanies in the Bible, one in Genesis 3 when God comes on in judgement against Adam and Eve, and the serpent, and the other in 1 Kings 19 when God comes to appoint Elijah as judge in...
Continue reading
July 3, 2024 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues
I’ll never forget a visit I made many years ago to a full scale temple model with my wife. The woman running the guided tour was just chuck full of… interesting tidbits… you thought I was going to write nuts didn’t you… well shame on you. Actually she...
Continue reading
March 2, 2023 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Old Testament Studies
Some have suggested that the “OF” case in Mark 1:1 in the phrase “Gospel of Jesus” is objective… meaning that Jesus is the gospel and not merely the preacher of a Gospel, though Mark 1:14-15 will show that he does preach a gospel as well. Here, in Mark...
Continue reading
April 25, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies
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 Amalekites. (Sounds like a somewhat bloodier version of most homes… “Sally, tell Tommy to tell Alice to clean...
Continue reading
April 23, 2019 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies, Text Criticism Issues
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 (the divinely ordained safe passage through the maws of death, representing divine election and/or divine decrees of innocence). ...
Continue reading
April 18, 2019 Andrew Sargent
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
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 that govern how a given translation attempts to render one language into another, and while I don’t have...
Continue reading
April 11, 2019 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
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 than likely, get a rather short answer which misses the mark if, for nothing else, its very brevity....
Continue reading
May 25, 2018 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Inductive Study Methods, Meeting the Jesus of Mark, New Testament Studies, NT's Use of the OT
Though appearing over 1000x in Scripture, HOLY is a tricky notion to express in modern secular communities. Few raised in the modern western tradition today have the proper mental and emotional categories to contain its full weight and meaning, even when accurately defined through extended description; and we...
Continue reading
May 2, 2018 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies
In recent blogs[1], I’ve been considering the alluring and powerfully theological type-scene “Foreigner at the Well.” It is common for people to develop in their entertainment of any form typical scenarios drawn from their own “way of life” which the community recognizes, anticipating their outcomes, and finding great...
Continue reading
April 4, 2018 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Old Testament Studies
Being that few of my friends and neighbors have names that really mean something to us, (Other than Marsha Mello, Amanda Lynne, and Justin Case Yelle). I am intrigued about the psychological impact of living in a culture that makes you feel like you stumbled into a mafia...
Continue reading
March 16, 2018 Andrew Sargent
Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Old Testament Studies, Text Criticism Issues
After discussing, in my recent blog post, “Hallelujah is a Sentence,” that the biblical “term” Hallelujah has grammar and that we should both be aware of that grammar and use the phrase accordingly in our worship songs, I received two types of criticism. Let’s call them sniveling and...
Continue reading
March 12, 2018 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, NT's Use of the OT, Old Testament Studies
I’m not sure which is worse, the constant misuse of Proverbs 29:18a (KJV) or how many times I find myself saying, “That’s not a good translation,” whenever I try to explain the whole proverb. Now, I have to say, “the whole proverb,” because I’ve never heard anyone actually...
Continue reading
January 12, 2018 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, HAGALAH, Inductive Study Methods, Old Testament Studies
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]...
Continue reading
December 13, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Theology
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,...
Continue reading
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]...
Continue reading
December 1, 2017 Andrew Sargent
Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Inductive Study Methods, Theology
In our own western culture the connection between names and meaning is rather slight. I know this, in part, because I am one of those annoying, but well meaning, people who goes about attempting to engage others in witty conversation, only to discover 7 times out of 10...
Continue reading
August 14, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Bible Backgrounds, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, HAGALAH, Uncategorized
At the risk of sounding like a petulant child… well, a petulant child that complains about the frequent misuse of ancient Hebrew in weekly church services…. Which now that I think about it isn’t really childish at all…. Okay, so… at the risk of sounding like a scholarly...
Continue reading
August 11, 2017 Andrew Sargent
101 Most Misunderstood Verses, Biblical Language Issues, Biblical Studies, New Testament Studies, Old Testament Studies
