I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Revelation 21:22 NASB No temple – As you know, I rarely write about verses from John’s apocalyptic vision. The reason is simple: Apocalyptic literature is filled with ambiguous images, symbolic words, and suggestions. This is intentional since apocalyptic literature is not predictive…
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. Exodus 12:21 NASB Go and take for yourselves – You probably didn’t know this, but translators of the Hebrew text into English make decisions about which rabbi they will follow. That’s…
So the last shall be first, and the first last. Matthew 20:16 NASB Billboard Advertising – Iron Gate Some things look better when they age. Some things just become garbage. At the beginning, it’s hard to tell. But give it time and the differences become obvious. That’s like us. Hard to tell what life will…
And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” Mark 8:29 NASB Who – Most of us realize that virtually all the followers of Yeshua in the early part of the first century were Jewish. That means Jews thought Yeshua was the Messiah long…
“One shall not sell a thing to a Gentile,” The Babylonian Talmud, Regulations Regarding Transfer on Shabbat Gentile – We have often noticed that paradigms determine interpretation. Investigation is governed by what we expect to find. It is never neutral. Even in hard science, the theory defines the category of discovery, and as the history…
“But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Luke 5:24 NIV Authority on earth – I wrote Cross Word Puzzles seven years ago. A lot has changed since then. In…
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? Romans 8:24 NASB Is not hope – Suppose I asked you, “What is the opposite of facts?” You might answer, “Fiction.” You would be thinking, “Facts are true. Fiction is not true. Therefore, fiction is the…
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:23 NASB For our adoption – Once again Paul seems a bit confused. Or maybe it’s just that old nemesis, Hellenism. Does he really say that we are eagerly…
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Romans 8:22 NASB Until now – Paul wrote this sentence about one thousand nine hundred and fifty years ago. The Greek words, achri nyn, (“up to this point in time”) indicate that Paul thought the universe was on the…
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope Romans 8:20 NASB Not willingly – You know, the whole human race is in deep trouble. We don’t think about this too often, but the truth is that we live on the cusp of extinction, both physically and spiritually. A pandemic…
