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Bible Q

Author Archives: BibleQ

Are all of Paul’s 13 signed letters authentic?

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This is a serious question. There is plentiful evidence from the 2nd and 3rd centuries of forged letters and gospels in the name of the major apostles circulating in corners of the rapidly expanding Christian world. Such texts were excluded from the New Testament canons and were often successfully destroyed, but from those where copies […]

What are the Noahide Laws?

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The so-called Noahide Laws, also called Noachian Laws, or Laws of Noah, are not biblical but are a concept from the Babylonian Talmud that there were seven laws given to Adam and to Noah before the Law of Moses was given to Jews and that consequently these seven laws are binding on Gentiles. The first […]

Does God’s permission to Noah “every moving thing” include animals like pigs, rabbits, camel, eel, catfish, crab, lobster, and shrimps?

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Yes. 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of […]

What does “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (John 12:41) mean?

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This is a straightforward verse about the prophets looking forward to Jesus. The mention of Jesus’ glory may confuse some readers who are already confused about John 17:5 (see the separate answer on John 17:5 “glory that I had with you before the world existed.”). But John 12:41 is a straightforward verse showing what the […]

What is the “right hand of fellowship”? (Galatians 2:9)

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The original context for the phrase is found in Galatians: “James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.” (Galatians 2:9) This marks the first […]

Is the Commander of the Lord’s Army in Joshua 5:13-15 Jesus?

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The Commander of the Lord‘s Army 13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander […]

Did Paul conduct any exorcisms like the character played by Max von Sydow in the film The Exorcist?

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The film The Exorcist The Exorcist is a famous and influential 1973 American film based on a horror novel by William Peter Blatty, himself a convinced Catholic, which was directed by William Friedkin and starred Jason Miller and Max von Sydow as two Jesuit priests called in to exorcise a demon from a young American girl […]

Why did Felix tremble? (Acts 24:24)

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Paul warned Felix of “a resurrection of both the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15) and Luke goes on conclude “when Paul spoke of …. judgment to come, Felix trembled” (Acts 24:24). So Acts 24:15, 24 seem to be clear that Felix – who had a Jewish wife – was personally trembling about judgment. Other […]

Were Lydia and the Philippian gaoler already “God-fearers” worshipping Yahweh before Paul arrived in Philippi?

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Who were these God-fearers? God-fearers were a large group of sympathizers among Gentiles with one-God worship of the God of Israel. Their existence is documented in numerous Jewish texts of the period, using a multitude of Greek terms (theosebeis, sebomenoi, phoboumenoi, metuentes). The most famous example of all is obviously Cornelius, an Italian soldier who had started to […]

“heap burning coals on his head”

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This idiom originates in Proverbs and is cited once in the New Testament: If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22 ESV) To the contrary, “if […]