In my last post, I wrote about my initial observations of Matthew's, Mark's, and Luke's transfiguration accounts. The assignments for this week included researching Moses and Elijah as well as the meaning of the word transfiguration. I started with an examination of the Greek word behind the English transfiguration. I…
My last post concluded our study of Ananias and Sapphira. At the end, I asked you to read Matthew’s account of the transfiguration five or six times, but also to read Mark’s and Luke’s accounts at least once. In addition, I suggested that you read at least a few verses…
In my previous blog post, after exploring some dead ends in our study of New Testament real estate law, we finally ended with an examination of biblical land laws, and how those laws applied to Levites. In this post, we’ll conclude our study of Ananias and Sapphira. To do so,…
In my last post, I wrote about what Luke, the author of Acts, meant when he wrote that “all things were common property” (Acts 4:32) in the early church. I then took a look at Ananias and Sapphira. Finally, I discussed the Greek middle voice as it pertains to the…
In my last post, I laid out a plan for studying the behavior and consequent deaths of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, described in Acts 4:32-5:11. We’ll begin our study by looking at marginal notes. What does Scripture mean when indicating that to members of the early church, “all things…
In my last post, I wrapped up our look at Baruch and God’s message to him in Jeremiah 45. Today we’ll launch our three-part study of Ananias and Sapphira, whose misunderstood death has been the source of some wild speculation and some questionable conclusions. For instance, today there is at…
In my last post, I wrote about marginal notes, an often-overlooked study aid right in front of our faces. Today, using some of the clues we discovered in the marginal notes, we will consult the Encyclopedia of the Bible and a couple of commentaries, which will help us learn about…
In my last post I asked you to read Jeremiah 45 five or six times in preparation for this study of Baruch. Our look at this chapter will be the first in which I condense our studies to two or three posts. [In my previous studies, such as our study…
In my last post, after wrapping up our study of Acts 17, I wrote that I would devote today’s effort to discussing how you can build a resource library, and what you’ll want to include in it. That topic, of course, is quite broad, so I’ll begin with three essentials.…
In my last post I went through the process I used to outline Acts 17, which marks the transition from observation to interpretation in the inductive method of Bible study. This post wraps up our study of the chapter, completing both the interpretation and application stages. In essence, the purpose…
In my last post, I asked that you outline Acts 17 in preparation for this week’s post. In this task, you are moving from the observation stage of the inductive method to the interpretation stage. That’s because you’re now beginning to think about what you have read and how it…
In my last post I wrote about the Via Egnatia, a major Roman highway Paul used in the account in Acts 17. This post will consider the last item I listed among my initial observations. That item is a cultural / historical institution, the synagogue. It’s always important in Bible…
In my last post I wrapped up the word studies for the chapter. We looked at the wicked men recruited from the market place to riot against Paul and his companions. We also looked at babbler, the term of derision the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers used to describe Paul. In…
I devoted my last blog post entirely to understanding the term God-fearing Greeks. This week we’ll take a brief look at some of the other words in the chapter. Among those are babbler and lewd fellows (King James Version only). As I’ve mentioned before, one important task in inductive study…
My last post concluded our study of the people of Acts 17. In that post, we looked at Dionysius and Damaris as well as considering the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Today, we’ll examine an important expression, "God-fearing Greeks." This term leads us to an important concept: proselytes in the Greek…