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What is the gospel? The old English word “gospel”, literally “good news”, has its roots in the Old Testament where the Hebrew verb “basar” meant to carry good news: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say […]

Since the Aramaic translation of the Greek New Testament has only one word for “rock” Kepha, how do we know that Jesus intended to contrast Petros and Petra in Matthew 16:18? This question relates to the Greek wordplay in Matthew 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter (Greek masculine noun, Petros, loose […]

What is the “Dayspring” in the Luke 1 song of John the Baptist’s father Zechariah? This is old English, “the day spring” in Tyndale 1525, and occurs in the Authorised or King James Version of 1611: “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us” (Luke 1:78 KJV) […]

The Greek word here is oxos (ὄξος), a tonic drink which may or may not have had sour wine as one of the ingredients. Oxos had a history as a tonic drink in classical Greek, and is mentioned by Aeschylus, Hippocrates, Aristophanes, Xenophon, and others. Hippocrates recommend adding honey to the tonic drink to sweeten it. In […]

The simple answer to the question why does Matthew omit 3 kings Ahaziah, Jehoash, Amaziah, from the genealogy of Matthew 1:8 is probably to conform with Matthew’s scheme of .fourteens. But that that then throws up two questions – why omit these 3, and why fit the genealogy to groups of 14? The answer to […]

Dating the Old Testament books is a complex and often controversial matter. However for the Book of Job which is a work of literature, a wisdom book, rather than a historical record, the dating can be left to matters of language, such as vocabulary, and content. The following is from Job by Edward L. Greenstein. […]