From the title Christadelphians might get the mistaken idea that Bart Ehrman’s new book, How Jesus Became God, would be sympathetic to the biblical unitarian position, exposing the doctrine of the deity of Christ as a later deviation from the …
Some years ago now, a Christadelphian brother, who was doing a PhD in Biblical Studies at the time, said to me that the best bible study material was being done by scholars. I replied saying that the best examples of …
Isa 52:15 in the KJV/NASB has ‘sprinkle many nations’ but later versions like the RSV have ‘startle many nations’, choosing to read a homonym:
So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that …
In this edition of the e-Journal’s ‘Archaeology News’ we travel from Israel and surrounding regions to Sudan, the Kingdom of Kush, stopping momentarily in the Jordan Valley for a free book download.
We commence in Israel, at the Kinneret College …
The stated purpose of John’s Gospel is this: “these [signs] have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). John …
In Acts, the apostles utter proclamations of judgement on people they encounter on multiple occasions. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 4.32-5.11), Simon the magus (Acts 8.9-25) and Bar-Jesus (Acts 13.6-12) all fall victim to the apostles’ judgment. The next series of …
When Paul is teaching the Corinthians about how they should behave when they “come together … in ecclesia (1 Corinthians 14:23)”, he says:
Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. (1 Corinthians …
The major problem in the interpretation of Isaiah 23 is how to correlate the ‘destruction’ of Tyre with history. The archaeologist, Maria Eugenia Aubet, says, “The fact is the disaster foretold by the prophet did not happen.”
What did the early Christians mean by the claim that Jesus was the Son of God? Trinitarian Christians understand the sonship of Jesus through his supposed eternal procession from the Father. Biblical unitarian Christians understand the sonship of Jesus …
In a previous article we highlighted the fact that Biblical Hebrew is often employed to assign a date to OT books and we highlighted several methodological problems with this approach.[1]
A basic premise behind linguistic dating …
The table below presents a summary analysis of the Psalms of Degrees (Ascent). Of course, one cannot hope to do justice to the psalms in such a short piece but the objective is not an in-depth exegesis but, rather, …
A person might ask: why has Christ remained away for 2000 years?
The answer does not lie in an appreciation of prophetic time periods. An understanding of prophecy merely postpones tackling the question. A slightly deeper question is: why is …
For those interested in whether Jesus spoke Hebrew, there is a new book of essays: Randall Buth and R. Steven Notley (eds.), The Language Environment of First Century Judea (Leiden: E J. Brill, 2014).
The list of contents can be …
One of the necessary things that the lone Bible student needs to do is read commentaries, preferably several. The reason for this is simply to have someone else (the commentator) to check and balance what s/he might be thinking. So…
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In Times of Israel an article headlined – “Temple Mount Archaeological Project Yields Treasure, Unearths Conflict: Sifting through earth removed from holy site gleans rare artefacts going back thousands of years, but Prof. Gabriel Barkay’s methods stir controversy” – …
The story of Jacob and Esau is recorded in Genesis in three sections. The first concerns their birth and family life (25:19-24); the second, their rivalry (26:34-28:22), and the third, their reconciliation (32:1-33:17). The narrative contains a number of word …
The Nazareth sermon is the second pericope with an intriguingly high concentration of servant song references. Again, Luke’s reworked ‘song’ will be our focus. As with Simeon’s song, the pericope of the Nazareth sermon is structured in four sections and …
It is an indisputable fact that sincere believers throughout history have disagreed about the interpretation of Scripture. Does this mean that God has chosen to inspire the Bible in such a way that mistakes by men and women are allowed? …
An often neglected subject is: What were the prophetic expectations of first century Christians? Many believers were “eyewitnesses” to the events surrounding the ministry and crucifixion of the Lord. They underwent a period of persecution coupled with an exponential growth …
The question ‘Whom did Cain marry?’ is a hoary old chestnut. When we look at Genesis 4-5 for an answer to this question, we are immediately struck by the fact that people read into these chapters a lot of …
The “Song of Degrees”, or the “Songs of Ascent” or otherwise the “Songs of Steps”[1] is a title given to fifteen short Psalms (120–134) characterized by use of a key-word, or by epanaphora (i.e., repetition), and by …
When was Hezekiah’s recovery? One scholarly view is that he became sick in 705-704 and recovered by 703. This view is based on the fact that Merodach-Baladan[1] was resident on the throne in Babylon for 703 before …
Introduction
ANE mythology is interesting for how it differs from Genesis and for what it has in common. This is obviously a vast topic and we are only going to select one point of interest: the firmament. This element of …
There are three reasons why academics seek publication in journals. Firstly, academics seek publication to further their career. This might sound mercenary but it is simply a fact of the trade – if you want a job in academia then …
The Jewish commentator Rashi observes about the ‘forming’ of Adam that God acted as “a kneader of dough who puts water into flour, and afterwards kneads dough”.[1] This observation is interesting because Adam was formed from the ‘dust’ …
This book puts forward the case for “Special Creationism”, a creation that occurred as described in Genesis 1 in the locale of Mesopotamia and that becomes paradigmatic for the understanding of the creation of everything, demonstrating that God is the …
Crucified with Christ is written for a Christadelphian audience and explores, what for many will be, unfamiliar territory. Unlike other Christadelphian books about the atonement, Crucified with Christ is not primarily aimed at trying to explain the atonement or to …
Being a Christadelphian is a marginalising identity, separated doctrinally from other Christians yet sharing in pressures of atheism and secularism. Those trying to live as a Christadelphian face an array of intellectual challenges. From popular atheism to academic scepticism, the …
Introduction
Psalm 110:1[1] is one of the most frequent Old Testament quotations in the New Testament, occurring five times (Matt 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42-43; Acts 2:34-35; Heb 1:13). It is alluded to a further fourteen times (Matt …