Who Was Ishtar and What is Her Connection to Easter?

Old-Babylonian Plaque of Ishtar

By now, many people are aware that Ishtar has nothing to do with Easter. However, there are still a number of Bible teachers, such as Chick.com and LastTrumpetMinistries who preach that Easter is derived from the cult of Ishtar. Is there a reason for this myth? What about the Easter symbols, like bunnies and eggs? … Read more

Was Codex Sinaiticus Found In The Trash?

Codex 1 Add MS 43725, British Library

Sometimes a lie can be repeated so many times that even educated people believe the lie. One example is the myth that Easter came from Ishtar. Easter has nothing to do with a goddess from Mesopotamia. Another myth is that one of the popular manuscripts used in translating modern Bibles (the Sinaiticus) was discovered in … Read more

Why Is Acts 8:37 Missing From Modern Bibles?

P45, Chester Beatty XII, leaf 3

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

What is the Letter Of Aristeas?

Letter of Aristeas, Epistula ad Philocratem)

The Letter Of Aristeas was a 2nd century (BCE) letter written to the Greek ruler Philocrates, who was Aristeas’ brother. The letter details how “Demetrius of Phalerum, the president of the king’s library” requested to have the writings of the Jews translated into Greek to store in the Alexandrian library. One of the oldest known copy … Read more

What is the Septuagint or LXX?

Hebrew & Greek Maniscript

The Septuagint, also known as LXX, is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. In some places, it acts even as an interpretive tool, such as the shortening of Job by 1/6th of it’s size in the Masoretic Text (MT) and a number of passages that appear differently in the Greek than in the Hebrew … Read more