In Matt. 6:322, where you would expect to find the idiom, “good eye,” the adjective used in our saying is not καλός (kalos, “good,” “pleasant”) but ἁπλοῦς (haplous, “single,” “simple”).
Jesus’ Command to “Hate”
If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Lk. 14:26, RSV)
The Most Abused Verse in the Bible?
Romans 8:28 has been read as a free-floating logion for years (at least in the American Bible culture), divorced from a context that would, if properly respected, lend it a much more limited meaning.
Jesus’ Jewish Command to Love
Jesus’ command to “love your enemies” was revolutionary! No one before him dared to raise such a high standard for the life of faith.
The Search for Bethsaida: Is It Over?
One of the challenging tasks for archaeologists and biblical historians alike is the identification of sites mentioned in the Bible — some of which were destroyed and disappeared in time without a trace. The first comprehensive attempt to locate these sites was that of Eusebius, the fourth-century church historian (ca. 265-339 A.D.).
First-century Jewish Use of Scripture: Evidence from the Life of Jesus
Through the window of a single New Testament episode we can gain insight into how Jesus and his Jewish contemporaries employed sacred texts with creative ingenuity to grapple with the complex issues of their day.
The Interpretive Key to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Modern readers of the Book of Revelation usually assume that the key to understanding the book lies in discovering a one-to-one correspondence between the figures it presents, and real-life figures. But the correct interpretation of the four horsemen appears only when we consider the four together as a unified symbol of widespread calamity.
Did the Early Scribes Understand John 9:3 Correctly?
The punctuation found in later manuscripts was added by scribes, and is not original to the New Testament.