Topical
How to resolve the tension in how David met Saul for the first time? (1 Sam 17:55-58)
1 Sam 17:55-58 Careful readers will note a strange discrepancy at the end of the Goliath incident (1 Sam 17:55-58), where Saul is seemingly unaware of David’s identity, even though the latter was introduced to him in the previous chapter.…
Jonah and Historicity III – The Fish, Literary Features, and the NT
In my previous two posts, I dealt with some preliminaries (Jonah and Historicity I) and the historical issues proper (Jonah and Historicity II). In this final post, I want to address some remaining questions such as the fish that swallowed…
Jonah and Historicity II – The Historical Issues
In today’s post, I continue the topic of Jonah’s historicity. In my initial post, I reflected on why the debate is so heated and discussed underlying assumptions about the nature of truth (see post Jonah and Historicity I). Today, I…
Jonah and Historicity I – The Nature of Truth
Whenever Jonah is mentioned, the first question I get is usually about the fish and how Jonah could survive in it, but it makes me sad that when this query is answered, people move on as if there were nothing…
The significance of genealogies and Jacob’s family tree (Gen 46:8-27)
Gen 46:8-27 Genealogies are possibly the most boring parts of the Bible for us, modern readers, but they have an essential function for ancient people. We tend to think of family trees as purely information about who relates to whom,…
How is the new covenant fulfilled? (Jer 31:31-40)
Jer 31:31-40 When we read Old Testament prophecies that relate to the future, we sometimes wonder how these are fulfilled. We understand that prophecies may have more than one fulfilment, but our application of this principle can be quite haphazard…
How to recognise God’s voice (Jeremiah 28)
Jer 28:1-17 A month or two after I started my first job, a colleague from another department visited our office. It was the first time I met him, and he said to me that he saw a great opportunity in…
How could a loving God demand child sacrifice? (Genesis 22)
Gen 22:1-19 A question that is particularly difficult for modern readers in the story of Genesis 22 is how God could demand human sacrifice and a child’s at that. Isn’t this the kind of thing that gives the OT and…
The chosen and the unchosen – is God unfair?
Gen 21:15-21; Deut 9:1-7 A prominent question in Genesis is election or who is chosen by God. Throughout the book, some like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are chosen, others like Ishmael and Esau are not. This is not unique to…
- Bible reading notes, Gen 12-25 (Abraham), Genesis, Reckoning Abraham righteousness (Gen 15:6), Topical
What does reckoning righteousness to Abraham mean (Gen 15:6)?
Gen 15:6 It is often said in the context of studying the Bible that we should ask first what a passage meant in its own context before applying it to our lives. For Christians, however, it is almost impossible to…