Herod’s Death Acts 12:20-24 Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. 20 He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s … Read more
The Church In Antioch Acts 11:18-30 (NRSV) 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen [had] traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. 20 But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, … Read more
Peter’s Report to the Church at Jerusalem Acts 11:1-18 (NRSV) Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3 saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat … Read more
Background information For the textual critics and history nerds out there, you might recall that in some time around 2011 a new Greek papyrus manuscript of Mark was “discovered”. By discovered, I mean it was found already existing in a collection of manuscripts, where it has been housed since 1903. It was actually discovered by Bernard … Read more
I learned a long time ago that the cross-reference in the margins of the average Bible was a helpful guide to understanding how the New Testament (NT) and the Old Testament (OT) relate to one another. Somewhere around 2009 I also made the realization that some of the OT references listed in the NT were … Read more
Acts 8:37: Omission or Addition? The general argument when discussing a Bible translation should be based on a single question: what best represents the original manuscripts? Since we do not have a single original manuscript scholars must use the existing ones and piece together what they believe to most accurately represent the originals. It’s not … Read more