In the Old Testament, anointing with oil was used ceremonially to set apart special roles, especially those of prophets (1 Kgs. 19:16), priests (Ex. 28:41), and kings (1 Sam. 9:16).

The most comm...

Paul’s second letter to the saints in Thessalonica was written not long after the first one, while the apostle was still at Corinth (Acts 18:11). This epistle seeks to correct an erroneous impressi...

A priest is one who offers sacrifice and ministers in services pertaining thereto (cf. Heb. 5:1). This term implies recognition of sin and the need for atonement, in some fashion or another. (a) Th...

By virtue of man’s transgression, death and all its attendant evils, including illness, have become a part of the human experience. It is not surprising, therefore, that “healing” is a biblical the...

The descendants of Esau (brother of Jacob) were the Edomites. They settled in the region southeast of Palestine. They became a tribe that was very hostile to the Israelite people, providing comfort...

The Greek term antikristos is found five times in the New Testament — all references being in John’s writings (1 Jn. 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 Jn. 7). The meaning is “against Christ.”

John warns that man...

Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. It was an exceedingly wicked city, but Jehovah loved even these alien Gentiles. Accordingly, he sent Jonah, a prophet from northern Palestine, to proclaim u...

After Judah’s initial return from Babylonian captivity (536 B.C.), God’s people had begun the work of rebuilding the temple. Then, due to opposition from certain enemies, the Hebrews became discour...

Paul’s second preserved letter to the Corinthian brethren was designed to be corrective. It urged the saints to be forgiving to the brother who had been disciplined because of his fornication (2:1f...

John’s first epistle is a defense against the “gnostic” doctrine that alleged that Jesus Christ was not a real, flesh-and-blood human being. This sect claimed a special “knowledge” received directl...

Astrology is a pagan superstition that believes the heavenly bodies influence human activity. Additionally, the theory often includes the belief that human events can be predicted by “reading” the ...

The term “grace” occurs about 155 times in the New Testament. The word relates to the Greek term chairo, meaning “to rejoice,” and grace itself comes to mean favor, gratification, or gratitude — d...

The imagery of a “lamb” is taken from the Old Testament to convey certain thoughts about the Messiah.

John the Baptizer introduced Jesus as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (...

Law is a mandate that is designed to regulate procedure; it proceeds from a superior, who possesses authority to rule, to a subordinate. Law is viewed from several angles in the Scriptures. (a) The...

The word “accursed” (KJV) translates the Greek anathema four times in the New Testament. It carries the weighty idea of being “devoted to destruction,” a term that should be approached with caution...

The term atheism derives from two Greek roots, a (meaning “no”) and theos (“God”). It is a word that depicts the irrational ideology of the person who dogmatically says: “There is no God” (cf. Psa....

The term devil means one who slanders or accuses (cf. Rev. 12:9-10). This word is used thirty-three times in the New Testament of the arch-enemy of man, Satan (Mt. 13:28).

Since only the deity is...

The common word for “walk” in the New Testament is peripateo. It means to walk around or, in a figurative sense, “to conduct oneself” in a certain way. It was the common Jewish idiom for how one li...

The Scriptures emphatically teach that the Second Person of the Godhead, the Word (Jn. 1:1), actually became a flesh and blood human being (Jn. 1:14; Heb. 2:14). One partakes of the spirit of antic...

Demons (not “devils” KJV) were evil spirits (Mt. 12:43-45) that were permitted to inhabit the bodies of some people during the days of Christ and his apostles. 

Almost certainly, this was to allow...