Did you know, that the Hebrew word for 'Gentiles' is the same word used for 'nations?' It is the word goy. At first when that word appeared in the Bible, in Genesis 10, it was purely about nations. In fact Genesis 10 is a huge list of the...
Very little is told to us in the Bible about life before the flood, but from Genesis 4 and snippets in Genesis 5 we can glean some information. Additionally the flood story shows us what skills, ability and knowledge Noah and his family had, which...
Rainbows give a good feeling. Everyone loves rainbows. My favourite was when flying to Africa, looking out the window below the plane, I saw a fully circular rainbow from above. Never seen anything like it before or since. The rainbow first appears in scripture in the...
The phrase 'the great tribulation' is quite intriguing. It sounds so terrible, so nasty that you would do anything within your power to avoid being caught up in that. Reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition, or torture at Guantanamo bay, except way worse, more systematised and deliberate. It...
When we think of the apostles, we think of people who are almost super-human, living on a higher plane than we do, and floating over failure and mistakes. That actually isn't the case. A search for the mistakes of Bible apostles reveals they were not just...
The story of Noah's ark in Genesis 6-9 is a story where God rescues people from a wicked world, and recreates the world to make it new again. The only people who survived were those who boarded the vessel of salvation, Noah's ark. There is an...
Many of the Old Testament ‘elements’ are shadows to point to Christ. In one sense, the whole thing is about Christ, but pre-configured. for example the Sabbath is a key part of the Old Testament - but it is a theological concept that points to finding...
The idea of Elders is older than the New Testament and much more widespread. Cities had elders who sat at the gates, and we see an example of that in the story of Ruth. Boaz went to the gates and made a transaction for a...
Enoch seems like one of those Bible characters so distant to us, so different to us, and so close to God. We see the briefest of mentions in Genesis 5. A big list of names is given off, and when Enoch is mentioned it pauses...
The twelve apostles walked with Jesus, so they certainly saw him. Paul also saw Jesus, he had a specific encounter with Christ that actually left him blind, but additionally he was caught up to heaven. He wrote saying, 'Am I not free? Am I not an...
