This phrase appears in Galatians 4:4, where Paul describes Christ's birth and earthly ministry as occurring when "the fulness of time" had arrived. The expression highlights how, over the centuries...

A genealogy is a registry of names of the ancestors or descendants of a particular people. A number of genealogical lists are recorded in the Bible -- for example in Genesis, Chronicles, Matthew, a...

The Greek term graphe ("writing") comes into the English Bible (via Latin, scriptura) as "scripture." The word almost always has the definite article "the scriptures." The expression may refer to a...

The Greek word skene (rendered "tabernacle") means a "tent." (a) The tabernacle of Moses' day was a tent of worship, designed by God, and provided for the children of Israel as they wandered in the...

Form Criticism is a modern approach to the Bible that originated in a liberal theological context. It holds, for example, that the Gospel accounts are mythological. The "scholarly critic," therefor...

The book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah. It actually is a funeral song designed to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem by the invading Babylonians (586 B.C.). The song is ...

The Greek word psallo is found five times in the N.T. It is rendered by the English terms "sing" (Rom. 15:9; 1 Cor. 14:15; Jas. 5:13), and "make melody" (Eph. 5:19). In the era of classical Greek (...

The book of Ruth has to do with a godly Moabite woman, Ruth by name, who joined herself to the Hebrew people during the days of the judges. She was a widow who married an Israelite by the name of B...

The term "heaven" is used in different ways in the Bible. (a) The expression may refer to the atmospheric region just above the earth wherein the birds fly, the rain is formed, and in which the win...

The third book of the Hebrew Pentateuch is Leviticus, the title of which suggests "that which pertains to the tribe of Levi." This Mosaic document provides information regarding the sacrifices, the...

Malachi is the last prophet of the O.T. record. In the final era of O.T. history (mid to late fifth century B.C.), the people of God fell into a state of spiritual lethargy. They were insensitive, ...

The New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven documents: (a) They are classified as "scripture," a term suggesting a divine writing (1 Tim. 5:18; 2 Pet. 3:16). (b) Eight known writers -- Matthe...

The Book of Daniel records the life and prophetic visions of the prophet Daniel.  As a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity in 605 B.C., during the first deportation under King Nebuch...

The third book of the N.T., the Gospel of Luke, was intended as a defense of the historical data regarding Jesus -- especially on behalf of the Greeks. Authored by Luke, a Gentile physician (Col. 4...

"Communion" is a term applied to the Lord's Supper because of its usage in 1 Corinthians 10:16. This act of worship emphasizes the fellowship (koinonia — sharing, participation) we enjoy with Chris...

A word that denotes the commencement of anything with a point of origin.  The "heavens and the earth" had a beginning (Gen. 1:1); hence, they are not eternal. Material origins must be explained su...

The prophet Zephaniah was the great, great-grandson of King Hezekiah (1:1). His prophetic ministry was conducted in the days of Judah's good king, Josiah (ca. 639-09 B.C.).  Josiah came to the thr...

Mark's account of the life of Christ begins with the Savior's baptism. It is primarily directed to the Romans, one of the major cultures of the first century. It is designed to emphasize the action...

Certain first-century Jews sought to persuade Christians (perhaps in the region of Jerusalem) to abandon the faith, return to Judaism, and wait for the real Messiah. The design of this letter, by a...

The ancient Greeks taught a rudimentary form of the theory of evolution. It was popularized in modern times by the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859). The evolutionary t...