As a new believer, I thought the Holy Spirit was like the “force” in Star Wars: something I had to access to find success. Paul has a different view in this passage. The Holy Spirit is the active love of God intervening to make us people who will persevere in faith.
The New Testament is our divinely inspired commentary on the Old Testament. When studying a passage, it’s often helpful to see how other biblical authors understood it. Here is Mark’s use of the Old Testament in his gospel.
The New Testament is our divinely inspired commentary on the Old Testament. When studying a passage, it’s often helpful to see how other biblical authors understood it. Here are Matthew’s quotations and allusions to the Old Testament in his gospel.
The first third of the book of Exodus takes place in Egypt. The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 400 years and were steeped in Egyptian culture. The cultural and historical setting of Exodus is ancient Egypt. Here’s a brief introduction.
The time between the end of the Old Testament (400BC from the prophet Malachi) to the preaching of John the Baptist (25 AD) is known as the “intertestamental” period. Here’s an overview of what happened.
Paul describes believers as sealed with the Holy Spirit. A seal fulfills a past promise and pledges a future inheritance. A King’s seal had a three-fold purpose: 1) to guarantee authenticity, 2) to name the rightful owner, and 3) to protect from being tampered with or harmed.
The ancient historian Flavius Josephus identifies four rival religious philosophies among the Jews at the time of Jesus: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots.
When it comes to biblical history, you can divide scholars into minimalists and maximalists. Minimalists believe almost nothing in the Old Testament is historically accurate. Maximalists believe the Old Testament is a reasonably accurate historical document. Among the maximalists, there are two main competing theories about the date of the Exodus: early and late.
After the death of King Solomon, two of his sons, Rehoboam and Jeroboam, fought for the throne. When Rehoboam harshly raised taxes on the people, the 10 northern tribes rebelled and installed Jeroboam as their king, creating the northern kingdom of Israel. The two southern tribes, Benjamin and Judah, remained with Rehoboam and became the kingdom of Judah.
Study questions, maps, charts, key words, history, background, outlines, and links to help you study the Old Testament book of Malachi.
Both the Old and New Testaments speak about the need for God to spiritually renew us and change our hearts. Both associate this spiritual renewal with the Spirit of God. But there is only one really clear Old Testament passage on this topic.
Study questions, maps, charts, outlines, and links to help you study the Old Testament book of
Krisan Marotta is a Bible teacher and host of Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.