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Bible Q

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What is the “two powers of heaven” idea and is it scriptural?

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This idea was mainly promoted by a 1977 book ‘Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism’ by the American Jewish scholar of religion Alan F. Segal. In his book he proposed that some early references in rabbinic texts were directed against beliefs of Jewish Christians and Gnostics. Segal’s thesis was heavily […]

Who killed Goliath, David or Elhanan?

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This is a Hebrew textual question. The Masoretic text of 2 Samuel 21:19 is missing the words the brother of. The context of 2 Samuel 21 shows that this is a different event and time and that it refers to the brother of Goliath. Therefore David killed Goliath and Elhanan later killed Goliath’s brother.  1 Chronicles 20:5 confirms […]

What is Tartarus?

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Tartarus occurs as ‘the deep’ in the Septuagint of Job 40:20 about the mythical beast Behemoth, and again in 41:32 (numbered 41:24 in LXX) about the lair of another mythical beast Leviathan. 20 And when he has gone up to a steep mountain, he causes joy to the quadrupeds in the deep. (Job 40:20 LXX ἐν τῷ ταρτάρῳ, […]

Did Jesus read “Yahweh” out loud in the synagogue at Nazareth?

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Answer : The answer to this question is clearly no, since the passage (in Luke 4:18 ) records Jesus reading “Lord”, in accordance with Jewish custom from the Maccabean period onward and then states “all spoke well of him” (v22). So evidently Jesus did nothing in his reading of Isaiah to upset the synagogue. The […]

Was Jesus totally dead, or just his body?

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Question : Was Jesus totally dead, or just his body? On the face of it this question is so simple, and so important, and so basic. And yet answers to this question will depend on what someone first believes about death, and also secondly on what someone believes about who Christ is. Therefore, broadly speaking, […]

“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord…” – Is Romans 10:9-10 a sufficient creed or statement of faith?

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“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord…” – Is Romans 10:9-10 a sufficient creed or statement of faith? . Taken on its own the phrase commencing “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord..” (Romans 10:9-10) would appear a sufficient creed or statement of faith. But then anything taken on […]