Hebrew, Latin, and Greek

I am returning to a Bible study website that I have ignored for many months.  It is Studylight.org.  On the side of the home page, there are listings for various writer’s thoughts and works in various areas of thought.  One of these is titled as “Difficult Sayings.”  Today, the line is about the apparent difficulty of Petroj and petra in Matt. 16:18.  The author goes to great lengths to explain how the New Testament was written in Greek, but the languages spoken by Jesus and the disciples would have been Aramaic or Hebrew, depending on the situation.  He further tries to demonstrate that Petroj & petra would have been borrowed or loan words from Greek into Hebrew/ Aramaic.  However, the entire question is being over complicated by the assumptions.  But Doctor Luke tells us Luke 23:38 “Now there was also an inscription above Him, ‘THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS,’” which the KJV attributes as in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.  Although the Greek for Luke does not support the attribution for Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, the Greek text of John 19:20 does: kai. h=n gegramme,non ~Ebrai?sti,( ~Rwmai?sti,( ~Ellhnisti,Å  Literally “Hebrew, Roman, and Hellenic.”  A.T. Robertson said: “Latin was the legal and official language; Aramaic (Hebrew) was for the benefit of the people of Jerusalem; Greek was for everybody who passed by who did not know Aramaic.”  Everyone who lived in the ancient Roman world spoke some combination of two of the three, or even all three.  Although I disagree with the author of the article, I have learned something about the NT that I did not know before.  Thankyou.

Spiritual Spackle

I am doing some touch-up in the house by filling in the space between the rough trim and the ceiling with spackle, painting spots on the ceiling that we had missed, and quarter-round along the beam of the ceiling.  When I was spackling along the ceiling, I found the tube had separated into water and nearly-congealed-paste.  To get the spackle out of the tube, I twisted the tube and squeezed hard.  Clumps of spackle came out between squirts of water, then I noticed that my shirt and pants had spackle on them; the tube had cracked under my hand pressure, spraying me with spackle!  I took the spackle out of the tube and re-mixed it in a plastic lid to even out the texture so I could use it.  The ceiling looks so much better that way!  I wrote to the manufacture’s website to tell them of my experience, but I really don’t expect to hear from them.

What is God trying to squeeze out of me?  Is my “spackle” coming out in clumps and squirts, or in an even paste as it should?  Am I spraying “spackle” all over the place?

Another Month has Passed

Once again a month has passed between postings here. I am always amazed that time, and things, passes so quickly. Today is the first full day of Spring, and the Mid-west is experiencing another snowstorm, even a blizzard. Our friends in Nebraska had snow yesterday, and expect another 12 inches today! Well, it’s not too warm in Tennessee, either!

I have found a good web tool for those interested in following along in the Bible when they read materials that have Bible references in them. This program is first of all FREE (in the KJV translation). It lies dormant behind your other programs, only coming up when you roll the mouse over a Bible reference, then it pops up a new window with that verse in it, with the surrounding verses, for context. Using this program, you can insert the Scripture by typing the book, chapter, and verse, then pressing ALT + F8. This inserts that Bible verse into your email or other document. For instance, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” was inserted here using this program. The only place I have found this does not work, is in PDF documents. If you want other Bible translations, you can buy them for various fees, depending on the publishers. I have several translations loaded into my program, because I prefer the NASB and the ESV, but I also have the NIV, the Amplified, and a couple of others. I have found several places where people have either misquoted the Bible, or misapplied what was said in Scripture. The website is: http://www.instaverse.com/

Community Easter Sunrise Services will be held at our church, Whitton Baptist Church. It has been a long time since we have hosted this community event, and I look forward to bringing the Easter message from 1 Cor 15. Without the Resurrection story, Christianity is not all that different from other religions, or even civic and government agencies that try to help people with life. The message of Jesus’ resurrection gives meaning to our faith “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain,” 1 Cor. 15:2. Come, if you can, Sunrise services begin at 7 AM, followed by a fellowship breakfast. We would love for you to be there! God is so very good.