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The Contours of the Land in Israel's History
The Land of Palestine
The land of Palestine took its name from the Philistines (the Pelishtim in Hebrew) who settled along the Mediterranean coast from Joppa to Gaza about 1300–12...
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Can Women Braid their Hair? (1 Tim 2:9) - Mondays with Mounce
One of the more misused verses in the Bible is 1 Timothy 2:9 and its supposed four-fold prohibition against braided hair, gold, pearls, expe...
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“White for Harvest” (John 4:35) - Mondays with Mounce
After speaking to the woman from Samaria, Jesus says to his disciples, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’?...
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Keeping Word Plays (1 Tim 1:8) - Mondays with Mounce
Word plays in Greek are notoriously difficult to maintain when translating into English, usually impossible. And when you can bring them int...
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Salvation by God’s Grace, Not Our Works (Eph 1:10) - Mondays with Mounce
If there ever was a question about salvation being by God’s grace and not as a result of something we do, just read Ephesians 1:1–10. Paul i...
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How do. You Know You are Forgiven? (1 John 1:9) - Mondays with Mounce
Well-known verses are hard to translate. Even if the historical translation is a little off, committees are slow to change. 1 John 1:9 is on...
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Jesus is the Gospel (1 John 1:1) - Mondays with Mounce
When I start to write a letter, my emphasis is on clarity. Not so with John. In fact, there are quite a few exegetical difficulties in v 1 t...
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Does the Present Tense Necessarily Mean “Now but not later”? (1 Tim 2:12) - Mondays with Mounce
1 Timothy 2:12 is one of the most debated verses today. My point in discussing it is not to enter into the general debate but to deal with a...
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When to Trust a Word’s Etymology (1 Tim 1:3) - Mondays with Mounce
Most of us are familiar with Don Carson’s excellent book, Exegetical Fallacies, and most of us are aware of the common error called the “ety...
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Who are the True Pastor/Scholars? (Philippians 2:2) - Mondays with Mounce
Philippians 2:2 is a confusing sentence grammatically, although its meaning is clear. Fee comments that in “the apodosis there is an equally...
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Are the Greek Texts of the Bible Corrupt? An Example (1 John 1:4) - Mondays with Mounce
People often say the Greek manuscripts behind the New Testament are so corrupt that we can’t trust them. Ehrman is famous for his line that ...
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Is There Really No Condemnation for All Who Claim to Follow Christ? (Rom 8:1) - Mondays with Mounce
Paul can sometimes make broad statements that are open to misunderstanding, especially when read out of context. In some of these cases, we ...
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Why would any law be against Virtues? (Gal 2:23) - Mondays with Mounce
Paul ends his list of the fruits of the Spirit with the general, “against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:23). Most likely, it is meant ...
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Are There Two Different Gospels? (Gal 2:7) - Mondays with Mounce
The KJV gives us an unfortunate translation of the genitive in Galatians 2:7, which can be easily misunderstood as teaching that there are t...
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Why does the NIV add the word “All” in Romans 3:24? - Mondays with Mounce
Because Greek is an inflected language, the grammar contains meaning that often is lost in translation. This is why translators have to add ...
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Miracles Do Happen - Mondays with Mounce
Who Condemns? (Romans 8:34)There is a peculiar change in the 2011 NIV. The 1984 says, “Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more ...
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Does anyone say "unto" anymore? (Luke 2:11) - Mondays with Mounce
Every once in a while I come across a phrase that makes no sense in English, even in the NIV. I expect it more with translations like the NA...
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