Lee Harmon's Blog, page 45

1 John 5:1, Jesus is the Christ

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God

//Many of us have a habit of speaking of Jesus Christ as if Jesus were his first name and Christ were his last name. I do it too. Or I’ll sometimes just say “Christ did this” or “Christ did that,” as if I were using a proper name.

It’s not a proper name, of course. “Christ” is a title, not a name. We’re tricked by lazy translations into Latin which drop the definitive article, perhaps to reinforce the habit of speaking of Christ as a...

Judges 6:13, Where are all the miracles?

…and where be all [God's]miracleswhich our fathers told us of….?

//I’m not very good at believing in miracles. Oh, I don’t mean the run-of-the-mill “I found a new apartment on the day I got kicked out of the old one” variety. I mean real, fire-from-heaven, rising-from-the-dead stuff. And the biggest reason I, like many others, struggle to believe, is that we don’t see any of this stuff happening today.

But should we really expect to see such things? Have the many miracles in the Bible made us t...

Book review: Revelation: The Way It Happened

by Lee Harmon

★★★★★

I happened to stumble on this review of my first book on Goodreads. I guess this is the power of electronic publishing … it reached all the way to Africa!

And speaking of Goodreads, a group of us will be discussing this book in a forum shortly. I’d love to have a few more participants! If you’d like to join, check it out at https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1536601, and if you need a cheap paper or free electronic copy of the book to share in the discussion, contact me at...

2 Chronicles 24:20-21, Which Zechariah was murdered in the Temple? Part IV of IV

And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

//We’re still discussing which Zechariah Jesus was referring to when he mentioned a man killed b...

Zechariah 1:1, Which Zechariah was murdered in the Temple? Part III of IV

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet.

//In trying to decide which Zechariah was murdered in the Temple, we now reach back to a very well-known figure: the prophet Zechariah, as identified with the Bible book of Zechariah. He is said to be the son of Berechiah, matching what Jesus said in Matthew 23:35:

That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteo...

Luke 1:5, Which Zechariah was murdered in the Temple? Part II of IV

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias

//Yesterday, I quoted a verse in Matthew in which Jesus speaks of a murder in the Temple. Here it is again:

That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. –Matthew 23:35

So who is this mysterious Zechariah? One possibility, discussed yesterday, is that this Zacharias/...

Matthew 23:35, Which Zechariah was murdered in the Temple? Part I of IV

That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

//Here is a puzzle that continues to intrigue Bible scholars. Who is the Zechariah that Jesus is talking about? In the next four posts, I’ll present four different opinions.

Let’s start with a discovery that I made while researching for my book about Revelation. Josephus, a Jewish historian, describes th...

Book review: Mylo

by Sheila Jaxland

★★★★★

Ever wonder how donkeys got the sign of the cross on their backs? Wonder about it no more.

I’m a sucker for Christian children’s picture books, if they aren’t preachy. This one is perfect.

Mylo, an abandoned donkey, hears a voice from heaven instructing him to go west. So he sets off at a gallop, travelling for two days and two nights. He’s found and stabled by Joseph, the soon-to-be father of the world’s Savior. This cute little book tells the story of Jesus, from birth t...

John 1:49. Son of God; King of Israel

Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

//Note the semicolon in today’s verse. What you’re reading is a form of Hebrew poetry (though written in Greek, of course), known as parallelism. Nathanael seems to make two claims: (1) Jesus is the Son of God, and (2) Jesus is the King of Israel.

But this is not what Nathaniel meant. Readers of a Hebrew mindset would immediately recognize that the second half of the claim is a restatement of the...

1 Timothy 5:18, Paul Quotes the Gospel of Luke

For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

//Compare the above verse, in which the author of Timothy seems to be referring to the Gospel of Luke and calling it scripture, to its apparent source:

And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. –1 Timothy 5:18

If it’s true that 1 Timothy is quoting Luke, then we can draw o...