Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1045 In 1868, a German missionary named Frederick Klein discovered a black basalt stone in Jordan bearing an inscription from Mesha, king of Moab. That inscription mentions “the house of David” and describes events recorded in 2 Kings 3. In one artefact, a biblical king was confirmed, a biblical narrative illuminated, and sceptics who…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1051 When you start digging into biblical manuscripts, you’ll eventually come across something called the Samaritan Pentateuch. It sounds exotic and perhaps a bit intimidating, but understanding what it is and how it relates to our Old Testament is actually quite straightforward once you get your bearings. The question is this: if the Samaritans…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1052 Walk into any Christian bookshop or browse online, and you’ll find hundreds of commentaries on every book of the Bible. Some are slim paperbacks, others are multi-volume sets that could double as doorstops. Prices range from a few pounds to several hundred. How do you know which ones are actually worth your time…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1054 You want to study the Bible seriously. You know that reading devotionally is good, but you want to go deeper—to understand what passages really mean, to trace themes across Scripture, to grasp the original languages, to see the historical background. What tools do you actually need? The options can feel overwhelming, especially with…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1055 Some Christians treat their Bibles like museum artefacts—handling them with great care, keeping them pristine, never dreaming of writing in them. Others have Bibles so marked up with underlining, highlighting, and scribbled notes that the original text is almost lost in a sea of colour. Who’s got it right? Is it okay to…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1046 When we open our Old Testament, we are reading a translation of ancient Hebrew manuscripts. But which Hebrew manuscripts? And what about the Greek translation that Jesus and the apostles so often quoted? This question sits at the heart of how we received our Bible and which text we should trust as authoritative….
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1047 If you have ever compared an Old Testament quotation in the New Testament with the Old Testament passage itself, you may have noticed that sometimes the wording does not match exactly. This is not a translation issue in your English Bible—it reflects the fact that the New Testament authors frequently quoted from the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1049 Few passages in the Gospels are as beloved as the story of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus’ words, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” have become proverbial. His tender statement, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1050 If you read 1 John 5:7-8 in the King James Version, you will find the most explicit statement of the Trinity in all of Scripture: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1048 If you open your Bible to the end of Mark’s Gospel, you will likely find a note indicating that Mark 16:9-20 does not appear in the earliest manuscripts. Some Bibles place these verses in brackets; others include them with a footnote. This raises an obvious question: are these verses part of Scripture or…