In swept away, Jefferson Vann discusses a fourth Old Testament word for final punishment that implies literal destruction. We conditionalists are often accused of using words like “destruction” in a simplistic, non-biblical sense. But in three previous articles, I examined the Old Testament Hebrew concepts of חרם (charam)1 and אבד (abad)2 and שחת (shachat),3 and showed that … [Read more...]
Perish the thought
In "Perish the thought" Jefferson Vann explores the Old Testament background behind the term “perish.” When I taught Bible College, I told my students to always try to get into the bubble. By the term ‘bubble’ I mean the historical and literary background that original readers and listeners shared with the biblical authors. Since we cannot get into a time machine and go back … [Read more...]
Limited to the visible
A study of the Law and Prophets in the Old Testament has shown that the normal, usual meaning of the Hebrew words shamayim and erets is the sky above and the land beneath. The popular concept of heaven as the place where God lives is almost entirely absent – at least it does not fit into what is usually being expressed by the biblical authors. Likewise, the idea of earth as a … [Read more...]
attention, witnesses!
In his commentary on Isaiah 1-39, Marvin A Sweeney explains the purpose of the call to attention formula as it appears in the writings of the Old Testament. "The CALL TO ATTENTION formula is a typical means for a public presentation or address and functions in a variety of contexts. Here it is addressed to heaven and earth and corresponds to the pattern of the TRIAL GENRE, … [Read more...]
The sky above, the land beneath
A previous survey of the passages in Genesis and Exodus which contain the terms shamayim and erets together has shown that the simple rendering of “sky” for shamyim, and “land” for erets are the consistently correct translations for those words. In fact, none of the texts surveyed requires a meaning other than those simple meanings. One significance of this finding is that … [Read more...]