Psalm 90 begins with some hard-to-hear words about our lives that are troubled with sin and all too brief, but then culminates with profound ideas about what brings life joy despite our difficulties.
Two Talks on the Bible from an Insider’s Perspective
Remember in Genesis 15 when Abraham sacrificed animals to make a blood path to cut a covenant with God? You might think that you’d need to go back three thousand years to see this scene, but Rev. Dr. Milly Erema saw her family make covenants this way when she was a kid. Her traditional culture […]
Advent: When Isaiah Explains the Words of Jesus
Advent is my favorite time of year because this is the one time that Christians read our Bible Hebraically, like the early church did. We open our Bible to the Old Testament and read it looking for God’s ancient promises and how they would finally come true in the Messianic age, in the coming of […]
Reading the Bible through Ancient Eyes (+ Update 1/24/22)
For the past couple months, I’ve had a remarkable Bible scholar staying at my house. Milly Erema has been teaching Old Testament for the past 20 years at Uganda Christian University. You’ve actually heard me quote her several times in my books, along with other Africans and Asians who I consult for their non-Western perspective.
Why doesn’t the Bible have more Romance Stories?
If you walk into any bookstore, you’ll find an enormous section called “romance,” full of steamy love affairs. Even if you shop in the “mystery” or “adventure” sections, nearly every story will have a “love interest” as a subplot. It seems like no story can be told without it. How will the lonely hero find […]
The Gospel Makes More Sense if You Think as a “We”
Even though Jesus preached absolutely nonstop about the kingdom, that word is quite a puzzle to readers. I used to think of “kingdom” as a very esoteric, abstract idea, not considering the fact that the word kingdom describes a community. It’s describing God’s relationship with a whole group of people whom he is redeeming. When […]
Greek Brain, Hebrew Brain: How Parables Worked
(An excerpt from my book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus ) Jesus’s parables fit perfectly into a non-Western, Jewish culture that expressed itself through tangible metaphors. He was engaging in sophisticated theological teaching, but we miss it if we are looking for the deductive abstract arguments of the Greeks. Jesus often based his reasoning […]
Where Two or Three are Gathered…
I recently received a question about Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” which I discussed in my book Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, page 72. Many read this line as meaning that Jesus promises to be present when his […]
Speaking is Painting: Why No Translation Can Be “Perfect”
Many of us are frustrated by why no one seems to be able to come up with one perfect English Bible translation. Why are there so many versions? Why can’t we just have one final, best English translation? A major reason is because of one aspect of language that most of us don’t appreciate. When […]
The Reality of Disciples and Rabbis
I recently was asked about how disciples studied with rabbis. What age were disciples, and did they pay the rabbi a fee to study? How did they support themselves at the same time? Did the rabbis work at some craft to support themselves? (They were not like rabbis of today, which like pastors are to […]
The Meaning of Life, According to Jesus
Here’s a little experiment for you. Right now, make yourself smile. Look in the mirror. Are you really, genuinely smiling? Or is it a little forced? Okay, now make yourself laugh. Did you fill the room with hearty guffawing? Or did you find it quite difficult? Okay, now make yourself happy. Are you truly brimming […]
Learning to Think in Hebrew
I recently told you about some of the interesting Norwegian words I grew up saying, like “uff-da” and “vasakope.” As my immigrant ancestors were learning English, they hung on to words in their mother tongue that did a better job of expressing what they meant to say. My relatives weren’t the only ones doing this. […]