This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Biblical LanguagesGrammar Many figures of speech and rhetorical devices in the OT are more intelligible if one is familiar with the structure of Hebrew. (1) Alphabet and Script. The Hebrew alphabet consists of twenty-two consonants; signs for vowels were devised and added late in the language’s history. The origin of the alphabet is unknown, although until the discoveries at Ebla the oldest examples of a Canaanite alphabet were preserved in the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet of the fourteenth century BC. Brief remains of a linear (non-cuneiform) alpha...

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series ExegesisAs Paul is approaching the end of his epistle he is aware that there is one important problem on which he has not yet touched, namely, that of the relation between the weak and the strong. The strong were those who were able to grasp the significance of Christ’s death for daily living (e.g., eating, drinking, etc.) the weak were not. Origin of the Problem God had laid down certain rules with respect to clean versus unclean animals. Only the clean were permitted to be used as food. (See Lev. 11:1-45; Deut. 14:3-21; cf. Dan. 1:8ff) In connect...

I’m not one to “reinvent the wheel” so when I find a well-written post (thanks to Choosing Hats) on the exact topic that I want to blog about I’m inclined to give props and direct people there. One such post was brought to my attention. Yesterday, Tim Rogers of SBC Today embarrassed himself, Mr. Ergun Caner, and the SBC by attacking Dr. James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries. It seems that Mr. Rogers didn’t like that Dr. White was pointing out that Mr. Caner claims to have debated many adherents from religions all over the world but is unable to give proof of...

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Biblical LanguagesThe name Hebrew is not applied by the OT to its own language, although the NT does use the name that way. In the OT, Hebrew means the individual or people who used the language. The language itself is called “the language of Canaan” (Is. 19:18), or “the language of Judah” (Neh. 13:24). [Some modern translations render 2 Kings 18:26, 28 "the language of the Jews," some "Hebrew."] Origin and History In the Middle Ages, a common view was that Hebrew was the primitive language of humankind. Even in colonial America,...

“And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” (Isaiah 2:19) Ever since the convulsions of the Flood, the earth’s crust has been in a state of instability, causing earthquakes from time to time all around the world. But there are earthquakes yet to come which will exceed anything ever yet experienced. The earthquake prophesied in our text was also predicted in Revelation. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there w...