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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Grace in the Old Testament
When we talk about God’s grace, it’s easy to focus on the example and teachings of Jesus. Throughout his life, the Lord demonstrated grace i...
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What Is the Inerrancy Debate and How Should We Think about It?
This article is adapted from Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible by Michael F. Bird.When God speaks through human authors, h...
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Bible Contradiction: Sinful Woman? (Luke 7:36-50) - Mondays with Mounce
There are two stories in the Gospels about a woman pouring perfume on Jesus, and there are enough differences that some people argue Luke cr...
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Christology: Understanding the Incarnate Messiah
In Engaging Theology, Ben C. Blackwell and R. L. Hatchet address how Jesus’ arrival changed everything: His first advent stands as the fulcr...
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Who Do Your Give Credit to? (Romans 15:18–19) - Mondays with Mounce
Paul’s only boast is in what God has done through his own ministry, the goal of which was “bringing the Gentiles to obedience” (v 18b). Paul...
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When γάρ Can’t Mean “For” (Romans 12:3) - Mondays with Mounce
γάρ is a tricky word. The more formal equivalent translations tend to just use “for” and let you figure out what it means. The problem is th...
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Who Wrote the Gospel of Mark?
The four Gospels are were anonymously written, strictly speaking. None name their authors. Luke and John come closest: Luke with its first p...
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Understanding Privilege and Leveraging Its Power
Dominique Dubois Gilliard’s Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege offers a significant scriptural examination of the is...
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When is Tribulation only Affliction? - Mondays with Mounce
How do you translate θλῖψις? If you translate it as “tribulation,” does that bring in foreign ideas in some contexts? This is a tricky one.B...
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Who Was Julian the Apostate?
In the AD 330s, 40s, and 50s, everything seemed to be going the church’s way. Successive emperors and co-emperors (Constantine II, Constanti...
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Is “Dynamic Equivalent” a Dirty Word? - Mondays with Mounce
I was talking to someone yesterday who was explaining why he didn’t use the NIV. He referred to it as a “dynamic equivalent” translation, an...
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Did Jesus Care the Disciples were Drowning? (Mark 4:38) - Mondays with Mounce
Don't you find it strange that after many months with Jesus (we don't know how many), the disciples find themselves in a potentially fatal s...
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Is Prayer Part of God's Armor? (Eph 6:18) - Mondays with Mounce
Paul encourages us to “put on (ἐνδύσασθε) the full armor of God” (v 11), and again to take up (ἀναλάβετε) the full armor of God (v 13). The ...
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Do Modern Translations Deny the Trinity? (1 John 5:7b–8a) - Mondays with Mounce
It is often argued by a small but vocal minority of people that modern translations omit the doctrine of the Trinity. Despite the overwhelmi...
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Answer the fool, or not? (Proverbs 26:4–5) - Mondays with Mounce
Some people say they don’t trust the Old Testament because of all the so-called contradictions. One of the apparent contradictions often poi...
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Are the Gospels Truly Anonymous? - Mondays with Mounce
It has long been said that the Gospels are anonymous. At one level, that’s true. The names of the authors are not embedded in the text of th...
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