Karen EnglePoems and songs. History and narrative. Wars and celebrations. Romance and grief. The Bible is an eclectic book. But it’s more than a book to be studied. It’s a compilation of sacred writings God gave us to know and love him better—it is the word of...
Understanding the Trinity—one God in three persons (Father, Son, and Spirit)—takes us into deep theological waters, where the simplest math fails us: 1 + 1 + 1 = 1. Even though the word “Trinity” never appears in the Bible, God reveals himself...
We often read our Bibles as if Jesus made his first appearance in this world as a baby in the New Testament. Our story as Christians, we sometimes think, starts with the book of Matthew. But the Bible’s witness to Jesus did not begin there. A common...
The Bible establishes specific qualifications for pastors (see 1 Pet 5:3, 1 Tim 3:2–7, Titus 1:8, Eph 6:4). But above all, they are to “set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim...
Each time an artifact related to the biblical narrative is unearthed in Israel or the surrounding lands of the Bible it becomes a witness to the perfection of God’s Word. And it happens all the time. Here are six recent archaeological...
Biblical archaeology is archaeology focused on the ancient Near East. It includes places like modern-day Israel, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran from 1,400 BC through the first century AD. And though students of the Bible often...
Thirty-three miles east of the Mediterranean Sea on a limestone plateau in the Judaean Hills rests one of the oldest cities in the world: Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mentioned 660 times in the Old Testament and 141 in the New—more if you count all its...
Hebrew doesn’t come easy for most—it certainly didn’t for me. While in my Hebrew classes in seminary, I set aside one full day a week to study it, trying my best to memorize the piles of vocabulary words my professor assigned and learn all...
Testing the acoustics In the 1970s, archaeologist B. Cobbey Crisler and professional sound engineer Mark Miles set up equipment at a cove on the shore of the Sea of Galilee to test this phenomenon. They investigated the natural terrain and whether...
Eventually, this grievous sin led to Israel’s dispersion from the land (2 Kgs 15:29), and to this day, Dan is a byword in Judaism for apostasy. But that’s not the end of the story of Tel Dan. The hope of a promise North of Tel Dan is a hilly area...
Magdala was not by the Jordan River. Nazareth was not by the Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida was not in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. Only Capernaum met Isaiah’s criteria. Jesus brought a message of grace, love, and repentance—“light” to those who...
The geography of Israel is more than side trivia for the events in the Bible—it’s the stage God chose to place the characters of his story. The narrative unfolds across many different landscapes, from the Mediterranean coastal region to the lower...
When Jesus told his disciples to “make disciples,” it wasn’t a suggestion. He didn’t say, “I really think you should make disciples.” He didn’t say, “Boy, I really wish someone would disciple the nations.” He used the imperative voice—he...
Part of the beauty of Christianity is in its enduring relevance for all people in every age. Charles Octavius Boothe (1845–1924), an African-American man born into slavery and later freed, became a pastor to help average or uneducated people...
In this excerpt from Holy Labor: How Childbirth Shapes a Woman’s Soul, Aubry G. Smith shares how feminine descriptions of God in the Bible are not something to fear, but rather a way of knowing more about his character: The God Who Gives Birth In...