Will at Anwoth informs us that CBD has 16 sample pages of the upcoming HCSB Study Bible for you to look at. (Large PDF file)
Will writes about some of his impressions of what he saw compared to the previous edition.
Archive for the 'Bible' Category
I’ve been noticing a lot of parallels between Deuteronomy and passages in the New Testament like this one.
Deuteronomy 15:10 HCSB
Give to him, and don’t have a stingy heart when you give, and because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you do.
2 Corinthians 9:7-8 HCSB
Each person should do as he has decided in his heart– not out of regret or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.
One thing I’ve been noticing is that when we give, then God provides us with what we need to do good. This doesn’t necessarily mean money. Many think that if we give (or “tithe” as some people still call it), it’s like karma and we get it back. Although some passages seem to intimate this, like Proverbs 3:9-10, that’s a proverb, a general bit of wisdom, not a promise we can ‘claim’ in every situation. Am I right? It’s more about being equipped to do good than to get our money back.
Deuteronomy 9:4-6 HCSB
When the LORD your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The LORD brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the LORD will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. 5 You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the LORD your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
1 John 1:8 HCSB
If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Mitchell at ve’al timkor is discussing the meaning of Genesis 6:3. Please go see his post and another thought . . ..
I read this in the NLT which reads:
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”
So naturally at first reading I thought this is why the lifespan of Adam and his descendants living around 900 years and then they got shorter. However Mitchell doesn’t see it this way so I looked it up in other translations and found this:
Genesis 6:3 NET
So the LORD said, “My spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.”
My question is why are these translations so different? Any Hebrew people want to tackle it?
I can’t stop at the end of each day’s reading. I think I’m going to get done early. I’m just going through the Old Testament though and then keep reading about it.
Also see:
Bible Reading Roundup
Lately I’ve been having thoughts about the genre of poetry in the Bible and how people can easily dismiss it as inaccurate or greatly embellished. I found a quote that expresses what I’ve been thinking (and is related to Genesis 1):
Second, “poetry” is not some lesser form of literature that tolerates nonsense. The Israelites did not think, “Well, it is just poetry so we can say some whacky things we would never dare say in narrative.” The opposite is the case. The Psalms were used in worship. The presence of the cosmic battle motif in Psalms actually tells us how important this notion was to them for praising the Lord. He is worthy of praise in part because of the defeat of his ancient “foes.” That is how the Israelites understood it.
–Pete Enns, The BioLogos Foundation
See the rest of the post at the link.
Disclaimer: I’m not familiar with Pete Enns or the BioLogos foundation. For all I know their basic tenets may be against mine. I just like this quote.
HT: Joel
John 3:16 KJV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
As most people know, this English is hundreds of years old and because most new translations are too afraid to mess with the Bible’s most popular verse (although I read that “judge not” has now surpassed it which is for another post). The first part of the verse to our modern ears sounds like it’s saying, “God loved the world so much”. But in that time it read like, “this is how God loved the world”.
Most of the readers of this blog already know this, but I thought I’d point out a quote by Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) which explains it in those words:
“And all this will be aggravated by the remembrance, that God once loved us so as to give his Son to bring us to the happiness of his love, and tried all manner of means to persuade us to accept of his favor, which was obstinately refused.” [emphasis added]
Which to me is some confirmation that this is really how it reads in English much less the original Greek which I can’t comment on.
So now we have some brave new translations like these:
John 3:16 HCSB
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NET
For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 ISV
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his unique Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but have eternal life.
I suppose God does love the world so much, but God wants to emphasize what He did because of it. The whole gospel message would fall apart if we just emphasized “God loves the world so much” wouldn’t it?
Mitchell Powell at ve’al timkor has written a posted called some of why i think what i do about genesis 1. Take a look and let him know what you think.
He’s braver than me!
Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I’ve heard many pastors quote this as saying you should go to church. I don’t see it that way. I’m sure there are some smaller congregations where people really are encouraging one another during their meetings at some point. But this doesn’t happen in most services I’ve been to.
Then I saw this by David Black. I hope he doesn’t mind me quoting it here. It’s from January 31, 2009, 10:30 a.m. (see how hard it is to reference these things!):
I love these verses (Heb. 10:24-25, NLT):
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Wow! Does this not suggest the character of our church meetings? Does this not teach us that we are to come together for the purpose of mutual edification? Does this not challenge our deeply entrenched views about “worship”? Should we not suspect The Message of a bit of eisegesis when it renders “let us not neglect our meeting together” as “not avoiding worshiping together”?
Paul’s point is crystal clear: We come together to encourage one another. How we can get “We come together to hear the Word of God preached” from these verses is beyond me.
See the rest of that day’s writing to read more on the subject.
Hebrews 3:13 says: “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (NIV) Does this mean we are to go to church everyday?
I’m not at all saying I believe church gatherings aren’t important. I’m just commenting on what I’ve thought these particular verses mean.
(I used NIV because that’s what I have them memorized in and I would guess this is the translation that many may be familiar with. So I also used NIV for Hebrews 3:13 for consistency.)
Post your comments here:
Who will recommend the HCSB?
Top 10 Reasons To Like the HCSB at Anwoth
And:
Find Out How You Could Win a Limited Edition Minister’s Bible
at the bottom of the page
If like me, you don’t have the budget to buy John Sailhamer’s The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation, which a few people have been raving about, you can read the introduction online at Westminster Bookstore (PDF file) and read an interview of the author at Christianity Today.
I thought these might be timely since many of us are reading through the Old Testament right now. Are there other free materials on the Pentateuch online that you like?
I recently bought a used older edition of The Handbook On the Pentateuch by Victor Hamilton that I plan on reading later on.
Genesis 8:21
“I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood.”
I know this is a highly regarded work. What I’d like to know is if I would be more satisfied with a good multi-volume commentary or this which includes a unique translation. Is the commentary mainly on the translation? What I would like is a good commentary but Barnes and Noble has a great price on this which would be an economical solution and I have gift certificates for them. (My relatives don’t know how to buy one from Amazon but I’m thankful to have these.)
I started my first day of reading through the Old Testament using the NLT 24/7 Chronological Bible. I’m really looking forward to it.
I apologize for any repeats in these links.
- Louis at Church Connect has a list of many of the links at Justin Taylor’s blog–Between Two Worlds
- More Bible Reading Resources at Between Two Worlds
- Bible Reading Plans at Best-Bible.org (keep in mind the site is for sale)
- ESV Bible Reading Plans
- Bible Reading Plans at bibleplan.org – My favorite is the plan for reading Proverbs in a month which I thought was pretty humorous until I realized that they send you the Scripture for each day so that you can read it on a hand held device. They give you a choice of many different translations and languages.
- YouVersion has 20+ Bible Reading Plans mainly for hand held devices
- Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System within this post with links to resources
Hold the presses! Be sure to see On Reading the Scriptures, Part I by Esteban Vázquez.
Nobody said you must read the entire Bible in exactly a year. You can read it in two months, which gives you a great overview if you’re able to do it. (I did it once and I’m not sure if I could do it again.) Or you can read it in two years. Justin Taylor points us to other plans in a post titled Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers (also mentioned by Louis).
If you haven’t ever read the Bible you may want to start with one of the gospels, like the book of John. You can read three paragraphs a day if you’d like. Then maybe choose a plan that has an Old Testament and a New Testament reading each day. The important thing is to read it. One paragraph a day is infinitely better than nothing.
These are mainly for reading on a hand held type device but it could give you ideas for what’s out there in any case. You can access the plan through their web site, your mobile phone and using RSS.
Reading Plans
It case you’re wondering, as I’ve mentioned before I’ll be using the NLT 24/7 Chronological Bible for the OT next year and then for now plan to read using Professor Horner’s system in 2011.
Have you ever posted the same thing twice and didn’t realize it? In addition to the link above I also posted this on Horner’s reading plan back in August. My brain is pretty amazing.
John 17:3 HCSB
This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent–Jesus Christ.
I can’t say what the most incredible verse or passage is to me, but this really stuck out when I read it while reading a commentary. Not just to know God is there but to really know Him. Is this not absolutely amazing? I think about this all the time. Let’s never take it for granted.
This is what eternal life is which I would gather is a little different than salvation. Am I right in making that distinction? I’ve never thought about that before.
Grant Osborne is too.
Who Was Jesus’ Grandfather?
What the two genealogies of Christ, found in Matthew and Luke, are really trying to say.
by Grant Osborne
I like to read about seemingly boring things so that I can see the significance of why they might be in the Bible although for some reason I never really get bored reading genealogies.
Someday I’d like to read a commentary on the least interesting OT book to let someone help open my eyes to important things in the text that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Let me know if you disagree with his assessment. I know there are various ways of looking at it. From what I’ve read so far I think we can rule out one was Mary’s and one was Joseph’s in Luke and Matthew which is what I always heard previous to reading commentaries and other related material.
At least two other bloggers mentioned this but I thought I would post it anyway for anyone new who isn’t knowledgeable about TBN. I saw the other posts after I had written this.
From a blog post called Unholy Trinity.
John MacArthur talks about watching TBN on TV. I thought this quote was pretty funny.
Recently, however, while recovering from knee-replacement surgery, I decided to sample some of the current fare on TBN. From a therapeutic point of view it seemed a good choice: something more excruciating than the pain in my leg might distract me from the physical suffering of post-surgical trauma. And I suppose on that basis the strategy was effective.
“For many years TBN has been dominated by faith-healers, full-time fund-raisers, and self-proclaimed prophets spewing heresy.”
I have often heard “The Gospel is preached more loudly by actions rather than words.” What actions would these be? What Scripture supports this?
Recent Comments