How Archaeology Helps Us Understand Scripture

Archaeology plays a major role in how we understand the Bible. It is more than Indiana Jones style trips to far away lands in search of lost treasures or the holy grail. In a practical way, archaeology illuminates scripture as we come to understand the culture and language of the time in more precise ways. [...]

Familiarizing Ourselves with Biblical Culture

The following quote is from Peter C. Craigie in Ugarit and the Old Testament,

“The Bible in not a difficult [book] to read…It was written for the ordinary person. But the modern reader faces a problem unknown to the original readers and hearers of the biblical message: the passage of time has imposed the gulf of [...]

The History of Samaritan-Jewish Enmity

In the New Testament there are several stories that give us a taste for the distaste of Jews for Samaritans in the first century. The two most prominent passages are in John 4 and John 8:48. In John 4, Jesus makes his way to Galilee by way of Samaria. In the city of Sychar he [...]

Ancient Near Eastern texts - Part 3

Ra and the Serpent Date: 2400 B.C. EgyptFrom comparing this online translation to others, I am not quite sure how accurate it is but it does get the general idea across. In this story, Ra, the god of the son, was the first thing in all creation. They believed that Ra created everything by speaking [...]

"God and" or "God alone"?

As we have been looking at a couple of ancient near eastern texts that help us see how surrounding cultures tried to explain the world around them I want to mention this quote from Nahum Sarna in Understanding Genesis
Since, according to pagan concepts, man’s destiny is controlled by two separate forces, the gods and the [...]

Ancient Texts - Part 2: Enuma Elish & Atrahasis

Enuma Elish - Mesopotamia
One of the biggest and earliest questions mankind has tried to deal with is “How did we get here?” The question we Americans tend to have today is “Why am I here?” with little concern for the bigger issues. One of the earliest attempts to answer that question was mythologized by the [...]

What Can We Learn From Ancient Religious Texts?

One of the biggest and earliest questions mankind has tried to deal with is “How did we get here?” The question we Americans tend to have today is “Why am I here?” with little concern for the bigger issues. One of the earliest attempts to answer that question was mythologized by the Mesopotamians in Enuma [...]

What Can We Learn From Ancient Religious Texts? - Part 1

There is a growing body of literature that is being found from the Ancient Near East. Man has always been in a search to understand our origins and to explain the interaction of temporal humanity and eternal divinity. There are numerous helpful resources (books and websites) that have translated these texts and organized them. Here [...]