The Philippian church was established by Paul on his first missionary journey (Acts 16:11ff). These people quickly secured a place in the great apostle’s heart. This letter, written some ten years ...

See ELECT.

Psalms is a collection of 150 songs of praise, authored by a variety of writers (seventy-three are attributed to David). They celebrate the Lord’s power of creation and his sovereignty over nature....

Reason is the intellectual ability of human beings to gather facts and from them draw correct conclusions. Reason is one of the traits of human kind that separates man from animals (cf. Jude 10). T...

The Greek term palingenesia consists of two components. Palin means “again, back,” and genesis, denotes “to become, come about, birth.” The word thus signifies a rebirth or a renewal. The actual wo...

Repentance has a variety of uses in the Scriptures. (a) One form of “repentance” is simply a feeling of remorse. It was in this sense that Judas “repented” (Mt. 27:3) just before he hanged himself ...

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...

This book contains the record of the forty-year administration of the Hebrews’ most illustrious ruler, David, who was an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. The book details David’s victories, his w...

The Hebrew term satan (“adversary” – one who “cherishes animosity”) comes over into Greek as diabolos (“slanderer, accuser”). Satan is a spirit-being who is the arch-enemy of God and man. His chara...

The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It dates from the third century before Christ. The “Letter of Aristeas” (cir. 100 B.C.) suggests that this version was translated ...

Near the end of that historical period known as the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Daniel received a marvelous revelation that involved the unveiling of future events relative to the coming of C...

The expression “Son of Man” is found mostly in the Gospel accounts (some 80 times) — especially the Synoptics (see) — and it is the term Christ used more than any other to designate himself. In f...

The term “synoptic” derives from the Greek word sunoptikos, which means “seeing the whole together.” The word is used to describe the first three Gospel narratives — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — bec...

The Talmud is an encyclopedia of Jewish cultural tradition that was designed to supplement the Hebrew Old Testament. It evolved over a era from about 450 B.C. to A.D. 500. The Talmud (from a Hebrew...

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (with certain minor portions in Aramaic), while the New Testament was penned in Koine Greek. None of the original documents (called autographs) of...

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...

This is Paul’s last letter before his execution. It was written during his final Roman imprisonment. The epistle summons Timothy to Paul’s side. It is intended to help Timothy understand the events...

Titus was a Gentile co-worker of Paul’s whom the apostle had left on the island of Crete to “set in order” certain matters and to work toward the ordination of elders within the local congregations...

“Translation” is the process of bringing the message of the Scriptures from the original languages — Hebrew, Aramaic (O.T.), and Greek (N.T.) — into the various languages and dialects of the nati...

This word signifies “change in substance,” and it reflects the Roman Catholic doctrine that in the communion service, when the priest pronounces the words, “this is my body” and “this is my blood,”...