Why Did The Apocryphal Books Get Removed From The Bible?

Apocrypha KJV

Introduction For many Christians the topic of the Apocryphal books is far from a burning interest. In fact, a large number of Christians might give you a blank stare if you ask them if they even know what they are. The Apocryphal books, also known as Deuterocanonical, are books of the Old Testament that fall … Read more

Does Hebrews 10:5 Misquote Psalm 40:6?

Papyrus 79, Hebrews 10

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

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

What Did Cain Say To Abel Before He Killed Him?

Bouguereau, The First Mourning, Cain and Abel, 1888

Now Cain said to his brother Abel ……… The story of Cain and Abel is short. It has very few scenes of dialogue. It’s clear that the author was not trying to narrate a large part of Cain and Abel’s life. There is really only one or two points of the story, 1) that Abel’s attitude towards … Read more