Something You Don't Want to Miss From The Dead Sea Scrolls

I heard someone speaking about this on a podcast and thought I would look it up for myself. At one point in Church History, before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found beginning in 1947 and subsequently translated, it was thought that Gabriel's description to Mary of Jesus (Luke 1:32) was not an Aramaic phrase but was rather Graeco-Roman.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, (Luke 1:32, ESV)

Before the Scrolls, there was not much evidence to refute this claim. The "problem", as detractors would state, was either that Luke was inserting language into what the angel would have said to Mary or that the Gospel was simply written at a much later date and the later language was used.

However, in manuscript # 246 found in Cave 4 at Qumran (known as 4Q246), we read this, according to the translation I have at home:

"[Also his son] will be called The Great, and be designated by his name. He will be called the Son of God, they will call him the son of the Most High." (1)

First of all, this would have been written by the Jewish sect sometime before 150 B.C. This would definitely not be Graeco-Roman language. This is yet another reason the Scrolls have proven beneficial to Christianity in relation to historical and textual "issues." Secondly, this is NOT a Qumran text that is about their expected Messiah, or Man of Righteousness. It is actually more likely a text about some type of coming Anti-christ who would not be a religious figure but rather from a conquering army.

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(1) The Dead Sea Scrolls, A New Translation by Wise, Abegg, and Cook. 1996, page 269

An Adventure In Romans, Part 6 - Charles Hodge (Chapters 9-12)

Following are some quotes from Charles Hodge's Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans. These are quotes that stood out to me as I have been reading through this commentary. This only covers chapters 9-12. Some background to this is posted here. I think most of the quotes are self-explanatory, but please comment if you have any questions.


The plan of salvation by faith does not require us to do what cannot be done and which is now unnecessary; it does not require us to provide a Saviour, to bring him down from heaven, or to raise him from the dead. A Saviour has been provided, and we are now required to believe.- Charles Hodge on Romans 10:6-7


It is very important to know what the Bible teaches both about the object and the nature of saving faith That object is Christ, and saving faith is trust. He is so complete a Saviour as to be able to save all who come to God through him; and therefore everyone who trusts in him will not he put to shame.
- Charles Hodge on Romans 10:11

It is obvious that foreseen works are excluded as much as any other. For a choice based on the foresight of good works is really made because of works as much as any choice can be, and consequently is not of grace in the sense asserted by the apostle.
- Charles Hodge on Romans 11:6

The apostle, having finished his description of the plan of redemption and presented clearly the doctrine of justification, sanctification, the certainty of salvation for all believers, election, the calling of the Gentiles, the present rejection and final restoration ot the Jews, in view of all the wonders and all the glories of the divine dealings with men, pours out this sublime and moving tribute to the wisdom, goodness, and sovereignty of God. Few passages, even in the Scriptures, can be compared with this for the power with which it presents the idea that God is all and man is nothing.- Charles Hodge on Romans 11:33-36

Whatever gratitude the soul feels for pardon, purity, and the certain prospect of eternal life is called on to ensure its consecration to that God who is the author of all of these mercies.
- Charles Hodge on Romans 12:1

Believers are to share in everything, because they are all members of the body of Christ. The members of the same body have the same interests, feelings, and destiny. The joy or sorrow of one member is the joy or sorrow of all the others. The necessities of one are, or should be, a common burden.
- Charles Hodge on Romans 12:13

An Adventure In Romans, Part 5 - WH Griffith Thomas (Chapters 9-12)

Following are some quotes from WH Griffith Thomas's Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans. These are quotes that stood out to me as I have been reading through this commentary. This only covers chapters 9-12. Some background to this is posted here. I think most of the quotes are self-explanatory, but please comment if you have any questions.

The clay of human life can be moulded by surrender; it can also he marred by disobedience; and above all it can be made by obedience. Those two truths, God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility, are to be believed firmly, held tenaciously, proclaimed fully, and our life is to be lived in the light thereof.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 9:19-29

He asks for trust even though He does not explain, and the result of our trust in Him is that we are not put to shame. Faith gives insight and foresight. Faith gives fearlessness and fortitude. Faith uplifts and transforms life. Faith brings salvation and satisfaction. Faith inspires life and elicits hope. Faith gives value to all problems and mysteries in life. Faith gives victory over all the conflicts of life.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 9:30-33

When a man comes to realize that life demands righteousness he can proceed along one of three ways: (1) He may endeavor to restore himself; or (2) to rest upon the mercy of God; or (3) endeavor to blend the two methods and divide the work between God and himself. But he very soon comes to see that the second course is the only possible one. He cannot remove the guilt of his own past, for God only can do this. Nor can man guarantee his own efforts the absolute perfection of righteousness in regard to character and conduct. Hence it is wholly impossible for him to be saved, unless he is willing to saved in God's way.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 10:1-4

This twofold emphasis on heart and mouth is important; the mouth without the heart might be hypocrisy, while the heart without the mouth might be cowardice.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 10:9-10

We trust people by knowing them. The longer we spend with our Bible in getting acquainted with God, the stronger, more practical, and more blessed will our faith be.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 10:17

There is no goodness in things evil, and God can never bring good out of evil, because there is no good in it to bring out. What God does is bring good to pass instead of evil.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 11:11-16

"Saved to serve." God's chosen men are His "choice" men, and all through Scripture His choice men do not lie on "flowery beds of ease" but endure hard, sometimes sacrificing on behalf of others. We must never forget this.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 9-11

The grace that saves has already been established as the foundation principle of salvation, and this is necessarily the ground of all Christian consecration and morality. It is because we are already recipients of the mercies of God that we must and can live the true life. We work from, not for salvation. The should that is united to Christ by faith is ready to learn and to do its duty, for the simple but sufficient reason that it knows it can appropriate without reserve the marvelous resources of Divine grace.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 12:1-2

Humility is the direct effect of consecration, because pride is, and ever has been, the great enemy of true righteousness. Even the Apostle in making this appeal expresses his own true Christian lowliness, for he speaks "through the grace that was given."
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 12:3

If only the spirit of preference for others, and determination to sink our own position and reputation had been more in evidence in the Christian Church, what differences it would have made in individual and corporate life.
- WH Griffith Thomas on Romans 12:10

An Excellent John Piper Book I Read Recently

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading Jesus: The Only Way to God--Must You Hear the Gospel to be Saved? by John Piper on my Kindle app (have I said I love reading on my tablet?).

This book was an enjoyable read, and at only 123 pages isn't very lengthy. Piper gets to his points backing them up with scripture. Below are jsut some of the 29 passages I highlighted in the book. Here's a link to them all (if you have an Amazon account, you can login and see my highlights).

Though this quote is at the end of the book, I will put it first so that you will have an idea of what Piper's argument is in this book:

I have tried to answer three questions with arguments and illustrations from the Bible: Is there an eternal hell of conscious torment to be rescued from? Answer: Yes (Chapter 2). Is the death and resurrection of Christ essential for that rescue? Answer: Yes (Chapter 3). And do people need to hear this good news and believe it in order to be rescued? Answer: Yes (Chapters 4-7).

Many believe that the Bible is something that enslaves us and that without it we may be free. Piper asserts, correctly, just the opposite:

If we are cut loose from the anchor of God’s Word, we will not be free. We will be slaves of personal passions and popular trends.

Here, Piper is showing us the positive aspects of being rescued from hell as well as pointing out those blessed things which the lost will not have.

Implicit in the rescue from hell is the experience of praising God forever, and loving people forever, and enjoying creation forever, and creating beauty forever. All of this will be lost by everyone that the good news of Jesus does not reach. So what is at stake in diminishing the universal necessity of the gospel is the everlasting pleasures of people personally praising God, loving others, enjoying God’s creation, and creating beauty. This is what people lose by not hearing and believing the gospel of Jesus.

Perhaps one of the best brief explanations of Romans 5:

As the sin of Adam leads to condemnation for all humanity that are united to him as their head, so the obedience of Christ leads to righteousness for all humanity that are united to him as their head—“those who receive the abundance of grace” (Romans 5:17).

The following quotes are related to the question of whether people can be Christians by either (1) ignorantly worshiping God, (2) never hearing the gospel, or (3) believing in Jesus but never knowing His name:

(1) And we will see that even when there is some knowledge of the true God (as in the case of Cornelius in Acts 10), the worship of the true God “ignorantly” is not a saving act.

(2) Notice that the message itself is essential. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

(3) If one is saved by Jesus incognito, one does not speak of being saved by his name.

In response to devoutly following one's own convictions but not having saving faith, Piper relates to us when and with whom the gospel began:

The gospel got its start among the most devout people in the world at that time—the Jews. They had more advantages in knowing God than any of the other peoples of the earth. Yet they were told again and again: Devoutness and works of righteousness and religious sincerity do not solve the problem of sin. The only hope is to believe on Jesus

And there is hope because God still has a people to call His own!

And he will now gather in all those among the nations who are called by his name! It is his new work! All those who are predestined will be called (Rom. 8:30). All those who are foreordained to eternal life will believe (Acts 13:48). All those who are ransomed will be gathered from every people under heaven (Rev. 5:9). God himself is the chief agent in this new movement, and he will take out a people for his name among the nations (Acts 15:14).  

Finally, we as believers must take this to heart and be convicted to reach the lost for Christ!

Charles Hodge is right that “the solemn question, implied in the language of the apostle, HOW CAN THEY BELIEVE WITHOUT A PREACHER? should sound day and night in the ears of the churches.” 

Some thoughts on how we read the Bible

While chapter and verse numbers are wonderful, I have to wonder if perhaps we turn them into stopping points when they shouldn't be?

For instance, let's look at Isaiah 5 and 6 starting with that wonderful passage in chapter 6.

Isaiah 6:4-8 ESV

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

So we have an idea here that Isaiah feels unclean, especially now that he has seen The Lord. Specifically he knows that his lips are unclean and an angel cleanses him. Then that great question is asked "who will go for us?" and Isaiah answers the call.

Overall that isn't a bad interpretation of the passage and it conveys a sufficient meaning for us. But what if we take just a broader look at the context? What just happened?

In chapter 5, the Lord states to Isaiah that He will destroy his vineyard, which is Israel. Then God calls down "woes" upon 6 groups of wicked people. These are those who hoard property, who seek drunkenness, who call evil good. These are people that the Lord says he will strike down and against whom he will show his anger. (Isaiah 5:24-25)

It is against this backdrop that Isaiah had his heavenly vision in chapter 6. After seeing the importance of the preceding woes it is all the more obvious that Isaiah feels completely undone after he brings another woe upon himself. It isn't just some light feeling of sorrow as we now understand.

You can read more around these chapters to get a better idea as to what else may be happening, but this is a good start.

As I began with in this post, I do think that we sometimes miss out on details that are important when we may isolate our reading to chapter breaks. It all really boils down to the importance of context when reading our Bible. This is just something I've been thinking about some recently and may have to integrate into my daily reading. I would encourage you to also take some extra time to do the same.

God bless you!

Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?

I've been reading a lot more lately, specifically using the Kindle app. I just finished reading The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by F. F. Bruce. If you've known me any length of time, you'll know that I am a big fan of Dr. Bruce.

If you have ever wondered about the reliability of the New Testament and the texts behind them, then this book is a great place to start. If you have a Kindle, I can loan the book to you.

I highlighted a lot in this book, and will share a couple of things below. But before doing that, I believe that in just 10 chapters that Bruce gives us a vast amount of information to help us come to the conclusion that what we know as the New Testament today (and since its official canonization, which he treats in chapter 3) is more reliable than other ancient texts. After some preliminaries, Bruce has a great treatment of The Gospels and their miracles, the Pauline letters, and Luke's contributions. He follows this with archaeological evidence as well as that of Jewish and Gentile writers. Somewhat surprisingly, as I'm reviewing my highlights, I see that most of what I thought was vital related to the practical aspects of what the reliability of the New Testament documents. I hope the quotes can boost your faith as well!

Two of my favorite sections were his treatment of the Gospels and those of Luke. Below will be some quotes I found extremely helpful. If you are looking for a great primer on the New Testament documents, this is definitely a book you should read!

"For the Christian gospel is not primarily a code of ethics or a metaphysical system; it is first and foremost good news, and as such it was proclaimed by its earliest preachers."

"No matter how we classify the gospel material, we never arrive at a non-supernatural Jesus."

"The gospel as preached in those early days emphasized what Jesus did rather than what He said. The proclamation which led to the conversion of Jews and Gentiles was the good news that by His death and triumph He had procured remission of sins and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers."

"In his Argument to the Gospel of John, the great Reformer John Calvin says: `I am in the habit of saying that this Gospel is the key which opens the door to the understanding of the others.' His opinion has been endorsed by Christian thinkers of many ages, who have found in this Gospel depths of spiritual truth unreached in any other New Testament writing."

"The members of the Christian Industrial League, an organization which carries on a gospel witness among the tough characters of Skidrow, in the heart of Chicago's `Loop' area, say `that in their work they have found that St. John's Gospel is the best for dealing with these tough, hard men. Its straight, unequivocal words about sin and salvation somehow go home and carry conviction to the most abandoned, while its direct invitation wins a response that nothing else does.'"

"The same victorious power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power which operates in His followers, achieving in their lives triumph over the dominion of evil. Properly to appreciate the power of God in the resurrection of Christ, one must appreciate it in one's own experience. That is why Paul prayed that he might thus know Christ, and the power of his resurrection"

"Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy; he is possessed of the true historic sense; he fixes his mind on the idea and plan that rules in the evolution of history, and proportions the scale of his treatment to the importance of each incident. He seizes the important and critical events and shows their true nature at greater length, while he touches lightly or omits entirely much that was valueless for his purpose. In short, this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians." - Bruce, quoting Sir William Ramsay

"One point is worth noting, however: apart from Jewish and Christian writers, Tacitus is the one and only ancient author to mention Pilate. It may surely be accounted one of the ironies of history that the only mention Pilate receives from a Roman historian is in connection with the part he played in the execution of Jesus!"

"The spirit of these early Christians ought to animate their modern descendants. For by an acquaintance with the relevant evidence they will not only be able to give to everyone who asks them a reason for the hope that is in them, but they themselves, like Theophilus, will thus know more accurately how secure is the basis of the faith which they have been taught." 

An Adventure In Romans, Part 4 - Charles Hodge (Chapters 1-8)

Following are some quotes from Charles Hodge's Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans. These are quotes that stood out to me as I have been reading through this commentary. This only covers chapters 1-8. Some background to this is posted here. I think most of the quotes are self-explanatory, but please comment if you have any questions.

The hope which true believers entertain, founded upon the very nature of pious exercises, will never disappoint them. - Romans 5:5

This is Hodge's rendering of Romans 5:15 "for if it is consistent with the divine character that we should suffer for what Adam did, how much more may we expect tone made happy for what Christ has done!"

"There can be no participation in Christ's life without a participation in his death, and we cannot enjoy the benefits of his death unless we share in the power of his life." - Romans 6:4

"We strive to obey, not in order to be saved or to please God, but because God saves us without works or merit of our own, whom, because he is reconciled in the Beloved, we delight to serve." Olshausen (as quoted by Hodge on Romans 6:12)

It is as much a matter of justice that sin should be followed by death as that the laborer should receive his wages. Those, therefore, who hope for pardon without atonement hope that God will in the end be unjust. -  Romans 6:23

Romans 7:7 "Does the law produce sin, so that the fruit is to be imputed to the law itself? God forbid! Certainly not! Let it not be thought that the law is to blame. On the contrary, so far from the law being evil, it is the source, and the only source, of the knowledge of sin." as rendered by Charles Hodge

Hodge says that "by leading the apostle to expect one thing, sin deceived him by his experiencing another. He expected life and found death..." How is sin deceiving you today? - Romans 7:11

What Christian does not feel that he is unspiritual? How cheerfully he recognizes his obligation to love God with all the heart, and yet how constantly does the tendency to self and the world, the law in his members, war against the purer and better law of his mind and bring him into subjection to sin! - on the latter half of Romans 7

If we share the spiritual benefits of Christ's death, we also share in his life. If we died with him, we live with him. This is pertinent to the apostle's main purpose in this chapter, which is to show that believers can never be condemned. They are not only delivered from the law and justified by the blood of Christ, but they participate in his life. - Romans 8:6, 20

When the apostle says that believers are the heirs of God, he recognizes their claim, in and through the Redeemer, to the promised good as well as to the certainty and security of the possession. - Romans 8:17 

The purpose of God in the salvation of men was not mainly that men should be holy and happy, but that through their holiness and happiness his glory, in the person of the Son, should be displayed in the ages to come to principalities and powers. Christ, therefore, is the central point in the history of the universe. His glory, as the glory of God in the highest form of its manifestation, is the great goal of creation and redemption. -  Romans 8:29