Martha and Mary

Luke 10:38-42 – “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary (“Mary” is the Greek form of the Hebrew “Miriam”), who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha […]

Christ

Christ (from the Greek word Christos, a shortened form of Kiristos) means “the Anointed One.” In ancient Judaism, kings, priests, or prophets were appointed through a ceremony of anointing with oil on their heads. The Hebrew pronunciation is Messiah. “The Anointed One” and “Messiah” are different translations of the same Hebrew word, which refers to […]

The Origin of the Pronunciation of “Jehovah”

Jehovah (also Yehovah or Yehowah) is a proper noun that emerged from the Latinization of the Hebrew word יְהֹוָה‎, or the Tetragrammaton (YHWH, YHVH), with added vowels. It is the name of God revered in Judaism and Christianity, and can also be translated as “Yahweh” or “Yahveh.” Ancient Hebrew did not have vowels, only 22 […]

The Pool of Siloam

The Pool of Siloam (Hebrew: בריכת השילוח, “sent”) means “the pool whose waters were sent from outside the city.” The Pool of Siloam is a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of David in Jerusalem, located outside the southeastern walls of the Old City. Its water came from the Gihon Spring and […]

The Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin in the Bible refers to the Jewish high court. The name means “sitting together.” During Jesus’ time, the Sanhedrin was located in Jerusalem and served as the highest judicial body for the Jewish people. It had jurisdiction over all religious and civil matters, but it did not have the authority to issue death […]

Bethany

Bethany means “house of figs” or “house of suffering.” It was a small village west of the Jordan River, located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, about six stadia (about 1.2 kilometers) east of Jerusalem. It was situated on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, surrounded by green hills, plateaus, and lively […]

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells His disciples a parable about how to forgive others: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought before him. Since he was not able to […]

The Impact of the Septuagint

The Septuagint is arguably the most important translation of the Bible. It provided much-needed revelation for the development of the New Testament and had a tremendous impact. During the intertestamental period, as Luke wrote in the book of Acts, persecution scattered Jews across “every nation under heaven.” Many of these Jews spoke various languages but […]

The Rock of the Church

The archaeological site of Caesarea Philippi is located in northern Israel at the foot of Mount Hermon, near the city of Dan, and is a major source of the Jordan River. This place may be the Baal-gad mentioned in the Old Testament (Joshua 11:17), where the Canaanites worshipped Baal. The Greeks later replaced Baal with […]

The Paralytic at Bethesda

The Pool of Bethesda is a set of pools in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Because of its proximity to the ancient “Sheep Gate” (near today’s Lion’s Gate), it has been called the “Sheep Pool” since the 4th century. In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there was a pool called Bethesda. Many sick […]