Gideon's Altar: What does "Jehovah shalom" mean?
Jehovah Shalom means something approximating, “the Lord is Peace”, and is sometimes used more loosely to mean, “the Lord is my peace” or that the Lord gives peace. The phrase occurs only once in the Bible, in the book of Judges...
How long is a generation in the Bible?
The word “generation” is used in a variety of ways in the Bible. It is not a precise technical term or a standardized unit of measure. Sometimes the Biblical authors use the word to mean everyone who was alive at a certain time...
Bestiality and other deviant sexual practices in the Bible
The Bible lists many prohibitions on various kinds of sexual behavior. Leviticus puts the main ones in a short list together, and includes adultery and homosexuality along with bestiality: “...you shall not lie carnally with yo...
What is the Month of Abib?
While you won’t find the word “Abib” in English translations of the Bible, it was the Hebrew name for the first month of the year. In our modern Gregorian calendar, it corresponds roughly to April. The Hebrew calendar is more c...
A PhD explains Isaiah's phrase: “Forget the former things”
The past is a powerful thing. Through pictures, videos, and other types of “time capsules,” we can create powerful messages that endure into the future and offer a window into the past. Certain sounds, tastes, and especially sm...
The Best Order to Read the Bible for the First Time?
The Bible is not a single book. It’s a collection of books by many different authors across thousands of years. Where to begin reading, therefore, depends on your goals. If you’re a new reader of the Bible, I would suggest a re...
What was Cabul in the Bible? PhD says: Two different towns
Cabul is a region of lower Galilee, in the north of what is now modern-day Israel. The words Cabul and Kabul seem to be the same place, as they are different ways of spelling the Hebrew word כבול. The name is mentioned in two p...
Healing is the children's bread? Miraculous humility
The pop-culture image of Jesus is that he was a nice guy. He was compassionate and gentle with everyone and certainly didn’t deliberately put people down or antagonize them. Or did he? There is a fascinating passage in the Gosp...