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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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Unable or Not Allowed to Speak? - 2 Cor 12:4 (Monday with Mounce 184)
In talking about his ecstatic experience, Paul says that this “man” (i.e., himself most likely) “was caught up into paradise and heard unsp...
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An Untranslatable Word: γύναι (Monday with Mounce 183)
Every once in a while we find a Greek word or expression that simply cannot come into English. We want to translate every word, but in some...
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Shift from Seed to Person - Matt 13:19 (Monday with Mounce 182)
I was reading through the Parable of Sower and noticed something strange. It isn’t a big thing, but isn't it nice when Greek slows you ...
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“He” or “It” is Near - Mk 13:29 (Monday with Mounce 181)
Here is a great example of the ambiguity of personal endings. In Mark 13:29 Jesus says, “So also, when you see these things taking place, y...
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A little text criticism - Mark 1:41 (Monday with Mounce 180)
I was teaching on the end of Mark 1 a couple weeks ago in Sunday School, and I hadn't read the text as carefully as I should have. I wa...
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Sick or Depressed? - James 5:14f. (Monday with Mounce 179)
Every once in a while I am asked a question that surprises me because it alerts me to an exegetical option I have never thought of or read....
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“And don’t let us yield to temptation” - Mt 6:13 (Monday with Mounce 178)
One of the greatest exegetical conundrums for me is this final phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. My assumption is that when asked how to pray, J...
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Were they drowning? Mark 4:38 (Monday with Mounce 177)
I have always said there is always a reason for any one specific translation. For all the versions out there, and all the different verses,...
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Those Pesky Prepositions (Monday with Mounce 176)
I was reading through Mark 5 this weekend in preparation for Sunday school, and it was interesting to watch the prepositions. It illustrate...
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Does Jesus always do things “immediately” (Monday with Mounce 175)
One of the strange literary characteristics of the gospel of Mark is the apparently inordinate use of εὐθύς. It is an adverb I memorized as...
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Is it “if” or “since”? (Monday with Mounce 174)
First class conditional sentences are formed with a protasis (the “if” clause) with εἰ and the indicative (any tense). Their basic meaning ...
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Language is a Portrayal of Reality (Monday with Mounce 173)
I am back from Asia, safe and sound. I discovered, among many things, that the native language has four tones, and the differentiation in t...
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Does theology trump context? - Rev 1:4-5 (Monday with Mounce 172)
From Robert Mounce, while his son Bill is traveling.
________________
In the first chapter of Revelation, “grace. . . and peace”
is sent fr...
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Translating Meaning (Monday with Mounce 171)
Working in the gospel of Mark, I am impressed once again
with the responsibility of the scholar to convey with accuracy not only the
words ...
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“Naturally obey the law” - Rom 2:14 (Monday with Mounce 170)
This is one of the most frustrating passages in the Bible. I think that every time I taught Romans, I changed my mind on what this verse me...
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Does a series of things imply sequence? - Rev 12:7 (Monday with Mounce 169)
I was trying to make sense of Revelation 12 yesterday in my quiet time.
John has covered his second cycle of events (chapters 8 – 9) and th...
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