Category: Bible

  • Orthodoxy and Forgiveness

    The Eastern Orthodox Church does not generally teach unilateral forgiveness in the sense of always requiring or mandating complete, unconditional forgiveness of others without any regard to repentance — but the teaching strongly emphasizes forgiving everyone from the heart as a personal spiritual necessity, even (and especially) when the offender shows no repentance. This is…

  • Did Calvin teach unilateral forgiveness?

    John Calvin did not teach unilateral forgiveness (i.e., a completely one-sided, unconditional granting of full relational pardon and reconciliation without any regard to the offender’s response or repentance). Calvin’s teaching on forgiveness aligns closely with the biblical pattern: Christians are commanded to maintain an attitude of love, forbear love, and readiness to forgive even toward…

  • Therapy for the soul

    Orthodox Christian “therapy for the soul” (often called Orthodox psychotherapy or the science of spiritual medicine) refers to the entire ancient tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church as a healing system for the human soul, mind, and body, wounded by the Fall, sin, passions, and death. This understanding is most famously articulated in the modern…

  • Prayers for the Dead

    Prayers for the dead were a Jewish practice in the Second Temple period, before the time of Jesus Christ (who lived circa 4 BCE–30 CE). The clearest evidence comes from 2 Maccabees 12:38–46, a Jewish text composed around 124 BCE during the Hellenistic era. In this account, Judas Maccabeus and his men discover that fallen…

  • First use of the word “Jew”

    The four earliest uses of “Jew” by the time(s) they describe are: 2 Kings 16:6: Describes events ca. 735–732 BCE (Syro-Ephraimite War, during King Ahaz’s reign), where Rezin of Aram drives the “Jews” (Yehudim) from Elath. Jeremiah (e.g., 34:9): References events ca. 588–586 BCE (Babylonian siege of Jerusalem). Zechariah 8:23 (chapters 1–8): Set in 520–518…

  • More Hannukah Details

    Continuing the Hannukah theme (Part 1) (Part 2) Looking deeper into Hannukah. During Hanukkah celebrations in December 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly referred to the five brave brothers—the sons of Mattathias—who sparked and led the Maccabean Revolt. In a speech at the Western Wall while lighting Hanukkah candles with IDF soldiers and U.S.…

  • Happy Hannukah

    Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem for Hannukah, and the Jews there tried to kill Him. Recapitulating the slaughter of the innocent martyrs in Maccabees. The miracle that happened then was Jesus escaped their hands. John 10 portrays Jesus as fulfilling or surpassing the rededication theme, claiming divine unity in the very space rededicated…

  • Prayer Posture

    Posture during prayer during the time of Jesus involved various positions. It was common for full prostrations to be done in the First Century both in the Temple and in private prayers. This practice was phased out after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD by Judaism and later forbidden in the Talmud. This…

  • Jesus and the Jews

    Jewish Accusation of Sorcery Passages in the Babylonian Talmud refer to a figure named “Yeshu” (or “Yeshu ha-Notzri”) whom most scholars and traditional Jewish sources identify as Jesus of Nazareth, and they explicitly accuse him of practicing sorcery (kishuf in Hebrew). The key passages are: Sanhedrin 43a: Describes the trial and execution of Yeshu. It…

  • Hannah / Mary Parallels

    Yes, the Eastern (Greek-speaking) Church Fathers explicitly draw the Hannah–Mary / Samuel–Jesus parallel more frequently and earlier than is sometimes realized in Western scholarship. The connection is especially prominent in homiletic, liturgical, and exegetical texts from the 4th century onward. Key Eastern Fathers and Sources Summary The Eastern Fathers not only see the parallel —…

  • The Stone the Builders Rejected

  • Orthodox Zionism?

    Zion as a Historic Location 2 Samuel 5:7Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David). 1 Kings 8:1Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant…

  • Lord’s Prayer in the Quran?

    Muslims claim the Lord’s Prayer is in the start of the Quran. This is false. No, the Lord’s Prayer (as found in the Bible, primarily Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4) is not in the Quran. The Quran does not contain the exact text, structure, or sequence of the Lord’s Prayer, which is a Christian prayer…

  • Luke 21:20 and Partial Preterism

    The Destruction of Jerusalem – 70 AD Luke 21: 20 And when you shall see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, then know that its desolation is near. Eusebius of Caesarea AD 339 By the desolation of Jerusalem, He means that it was never again to be set up, or its legal rites to be reestablished, so that…

  • Church as Hospital

    Today’s Gospel reading is the teaching of the Church as Hospital, Jesus as the Great Physician and sin as sickness. Matthew 9:9-13 King James Version 9 And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose,…

  • Ultimately Victorious

    Text for today 1 Corinthians 4:9-16 King James Version 9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in…

  • The Letter of Aristeas

    Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates is a Hellenistic work of the 3rd or early 2nd century BC. The letter describes the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible by seventy-two interpreters sent into Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria, resulting in the Septuagint translation. The work relates how the king of Egypt, presumably Ptolemy II Philadelphus, is urged by…

  • Evangelical “Re-” Baptism

    When I was an associate Evangelical pastor, I taught the Baptism class. I talked a woman in the class out of being rebaptized. She was originally baptized Catholic. Our Sr Pastor wasn’t happy. I was more of a sacramentalist than most. Eph 4:5-6 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all,…

  • Messianic Judaism

    I went to a Messianic Jewish synagogue for 1.5 yrs back in the mid 1990’s. I mistakenly thought if I went to a Messianic synagogue, I’d get to learn the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. What I got was the form of rabbinic Judaism that was practiced after the temple was destroyed. I learned…

  • The Chosen People

    New Testament fulfillment of Old Testament passages.

  • The Mercy of God

    The Jews still exist. God did not destroy them when they rejected His Only Son. He could have and would have been within His rights to do so. After all, He destroyed Sodom for a much less serious crime. The mercy of God is to give them time to repent.

  • Good Pharisees?

    John the Forerunner Most of the Gospel accounts of Pharisees are negative. Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Nicodemus – Secret Follower John 3:1 There was…

  • Najran Massacre

    The Massacre of Christians in Najran (523 CE) The most prominent historical event referred to as the “massacre of Christians in Yemen” is the persecution and mass killing of Christians in the city of Najran (in modern-day southwestern Saudi Arabia, but part of ancient Himyarite Yemen) in 523 CE. This event, carried out under the…

  • Priestly Vestments

    Exodus 28 provides detailed instructions from God to Moses about the garments for Aaron, the high priest, and his sons. These include the ephod, breastpiece, robe, tunic, turban, and sash, with specifics on materials (gold, blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and fine linen), design, and symbolic elements like the twelve gemstones representing the tribes of Israel.…