War in the Bible: an Examination of Biblical Conflict and Violence
The Bible doesn’t flinch at portraying the world’s violence, especially during wartime. And while there is no such thing as a kind and gentle war, you might be surprised to learn t...
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Do Elder’s Children Have to be Believers? (Titus 1:6) - Mondays with Mounce
One of the more difficult passages to translate in the Pastorals is Titus 1:6 and the question as to
whether an elder’s children have to ha...
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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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Encouragement for Exhausted Pastors (2 Tim 1:10) - Mondays with Mounce
Adverbial participles are flexible little critters with a wide swatch of possible meanings. Usually their meaning is relatively clear, somet...
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What Word Should I Study, and Why Italics Annoy Me - Mondays with Mounce
Everyone likes to do a Greek word study. Of all the things that we learn in Greek class, this is the one that stays with us the longest. The...
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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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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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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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Is Jesus God? (Rom 9:5) - Mondays with Mounce
Prof. Bart Ehrman claims that originally John 1:18 declared Jesus to be the “unique Son” (μονογενὴς υἱός), which was later changed to “uniqu...
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Was Jesus Still Angry? (Mark 3:5) - Mondays with Mounce
A few weeks ago I wrote about Mark 1:41 and how the original text says, I believe, that Jesus was angry. This is one of the seven main passa...
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Waves and a Virus: Which is Greater? (Rev 1:15) - Mondays with Mounce
When John first hears the voice behind him, he turns and sees the seven golden lampstands with Jesus standing in their midst, dressed in a r...
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When Did the Angels Come? (Mark 1:13) — Mondays with Mounce 339
Language is imprecise. It would be great if all of us said exactly what we meant, and meant exactly what we said, but that is neither human ...
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Are All Translations Wrong? (The "Net" in Mark 1:16) — Mondays with Mounce 338
Rarely do I find a translation that makes no sense to me, and since this particular one is replicated in all the translations, I am assuming...
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What Benefit Do You Receive from Your Giving? (Philippians 4:17) — Mondays with Mounce 337
(You can watch this blog post on YouTube.) One of the fundamental lessons everyone who does word studies needs to understand is that words h...
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Greek Students Should Do Two Translations (Matthew 13:11) — Mondays with Mounce 336
(Note: you can watch this blog post on YouTube.) In first year Greek we historically do just one wooden, word-for-word translation. This way...
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When Does “No” Become “Never”? (Mark 10:15) — Mondays with Mounce 335
It is often said that translators are traitors. They are traitors because they either over- or under-translate the meaning of the original t...
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Why Do We Learn? — Mondays with Mounce 334
One of the advantages of formal equivalent translations is that they tend to maintain the distinction between dependent and independent cons...
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