The idea of “intercession” is expressed in both Testaments of the Bible. The Greek verb entunchano suggests the concept of making an appeal to someone with reference to another person. It can mean ...

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...

Biblical chronology has to do with the relationship of the events recorded in Scripture to specific dates. Some events are a bit ambiguous in terms of date. Others are more precise. 

While the Bib...

The English word “church” is derived from the Greek kurikon, meaning “belonging to the Lord.”

The actual word in the Greek text, which stands behind the modern rendition, “church,” is ekklesia, "...

“Fellowship” translates the Greek koinonia, meaning “participation, association, sharing.” Fellowship exists on two levels — the vertical (the Christian’s relationship with God) and the horizontal...

Retribution will be the dispensing of the “wrath of God,” as an expression of divine justice, upon those who have persisted in wicked rebellion against their Maker. The expression “wrath of God” is...

The term “slave” (Grk. doulos) is used in the Bible in both a literal and a figurative sense. (a) Literal slaves were common in the ancient world. A person could be purchased as a slave, become a s...

The Greek term pascha has been mistranslated as “Easter” in the King James Version of the Bible (Acts 12:4). The term is consistently rendered “passover” elsewhere in the New Testament (see Mt. 26:...

The Greek word for “heart” is kardia (as in the English word “cardiac”). Although “heart” literally refers to the blood-pumping organ in a person’s body, the term is rarely used to refer to the phy...

Three different Greek words are rendered “hell” in the King James translation of the Bible. (a) Hades is found ten times in the Greek N.T.; nine times it is rendered “hell,” once “grave” in the KJV...

This book contains the historical record of the change in Israel’s form of government from judges to that of the kings. The nation, in an act of rejecting God, desired a king to be like their pagan...

The Bible occasionally speaks of the wicked being ultimately “destroyed” (apollumi) in hell (Mt. 10:28; Lk. 13:3, 5; 2 Thes. 2:10). Some, therefore, have assumed that after an appropriate period of...

This term is found only a few times in the English Bible. In four cases it renders the Greek threskeia, which basically means holy service, the exercise of devotion to a transcendent Being or being...

Expediency is sometimes defined as the method by which a determined goal is achieved, regardless of the moral consequences. This is not the biblical concept of expediency.

In Bible parlance, a me...

The English Bible uses the word “abomination” to reflect about a dozen terms in the original languages of both Testaments. The prevailing idea behind the words is a divine revulsion at transgressio...

The English “angel” is an anglicized form of the Greek aggelos (pronounced angelos). The term signifies a “messenger.”

The word Aggelos is used in several ways in the Scriptures. 
• It commonly d...

The word “agnostic” does not appear in the English Bible. The term derives, however, from Greek roots suggesting the idea “not known.”

When Paul visited Athens, he noted that the pagans there had...

The creation was the act of an omnipotent God, speaking into existence, from no previous materials, the entire Universe and everything within it. This concept is unique to Judeo-Christian theology....

The word “perfect” is used in different ways in the Bible. (a) Only deity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is perfect in the absolute, moral sense (Mt. 5:48), though Christians are to strive for this...

From the Greek word eschatos (“last”) comes “eschatology,” a study of “last things” (e.g., the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment day, the end of the world, heaven,...