(Continuing my series on word studies.) From time to time in conversation with my wife I’ll jump topics. My brain does that to me, as one thing suggests another thing, often related only in the most distant way. Suddenly she’ll stop me and say, “I need a context for that.” I’ve said something that she…
A young man in one of my classes once told me that he didn’t want to depend on scholars. His aim in attending my class on Bible study was to know for himself. Now this young man has an admirable goal, provided that you use “goal” in the same sense as one uses “north star”…
In my previous entry in this series I noted the difference between a gloss and a definition. To review: First, let me distinguish between a “gloss” and a “definition.” A “gloss” is a word or phrase proposed as a translation for a word in the source language. When a Greek student is taught that “pistis”…
Several years ago I was in an online chat on religion, and one of the other members discovered that I read Hebrew. I actually forget how he accomplished it; that wasn’t the topic and I didn’t tell him. In any case, he said, “Wow! You read Hebrew!” I acknowledged that I do. “I’ve been wanting…
[This is the first in a short series on word studies, especially the type of study done using an English concordance keyed to the Biblical languages, such as Strong’s Concordance.] A few years back in the pre-blog days when most online discussions took place on various forums, someone proposed to me a new translation and…
