Podcasts about Koine Greek

Bishop Nathan Wilson pt.1 Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Hey, this week I interviewed Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union, and it was a good long interview, so I’ll be breaking it up probably into three segments for the next three weeks here. Bishop Wilson earned a diploma of ministry from the Gnostic Catholic Union, and then he later went on to create The Gnostic Union, and he’ll tell you about that in this week’s episode. Here I’ll read you the intro from their website. “The Gnostic Union is an independent sacramental assembly of Gnostic Christian communities and individuals. It exists to uphold the Gnostic Christian traditions and to encourage and promote the work of Christ and the Holy Sophia in the world.As an international, independent, autonomous, non-political organization, the Gnostic Union is in no way dependent upon any other authority outside of its own administration. We are neither Roman Catholic, Orthodox, nor Protestant. We are Gnostic Christians that encourage self-development and connecting with the spirit within to build a personal relationship with God, the Monad, the Father. Our bishops, priests, and deacons are merely guides to help you on your spiritual journey. The Gnostic Union aligns itself with the history and teachings of the first Christians of early first century Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the Gospel of Thomas. We encourage new members to read from the Nag Hammadi and to understand how different early Christianity is from modern mainstream Christianity. We welcome all people, regardless of past religious backgrounds or faiths. Gnosis means knowledge, not just simple intellectual knowledge, but deep spiritual knowledge within you. Knowledge from the Spirit, from the Holy Spirit, and from and of God.” You see, I felt that that really went along with what we talk about here at Gnostic Insights, and so when Bishop Wilson reached out to me via our Substack Gnostic Reformation site, I was more than happy to engage in conversation with him, and I thought that having a talk with him along with you and then broadcasting it would be helpful to all of us. Here’s the last little bit that it says on their Gnostic Union homepage, which is only one page long. It’s still in development. It says, “Gnostic Christian theology differs greatly from Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Gnostic Christianity does not depend upon the authority of a Pope or the Church. Instead, it emphasizes being reborn in Spirit, building a personal spiritual relationship with God, and becoming Christ-like by enacting the teachings of Jesus Christ in our lives. Gnostic Christianity began from earlier Gnostic traditions, such as Hermeticism and Mysticism, which arose from Jewish mystics. Gnosticism itself is much older than Judaism, and traces back to the Hermetics of ancient Egypt, the Druids, and the ancient Greeks. Although many Gnostic Christian theologies differed, they shared a common theme of a trapped spiritual essence within the material body, the divine spark, the soul, or the spark of Sophia. The ultimate goal for Gnostic Christians was to become like Jesus, to be reborn in Spirit, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Sophia, and to know thyself, reflecting the divine essence within.” As you know, here at Gnostic Insights and the Gnostic Reformation, I stay away from the histories, because it seems to me that what is important is the here-and-now relationship we have with the Christ and with the Fullness of God. And so, I’m just not all that interested in history, but as you’ll hear from these ongoing interviews with Bishop Wilson, he’s all about history. So, for those of you who have been missing that strain of thought in our Gnostic Insights here, you’ll get an earful for the next three weeks. So without further ado, here's part one of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of The Gnostic Union. Cyd: Well, such a pleasure to see you. You have such a nice smile. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure. It’s always lovely to meet other Gnostics, other spiritual people, all those with open hearts and open minds. It’s always lovely to see. Cyd:Yes. Yes. Yes, it’s true. I wish I had more of these people close around me. Do you have neighbors who are Gnostic? Do you have people you can actually face-to-face with? Bishop Nathan Wilson:I’ve met a priest that I can now speak face-to-face, which was really good. So, it was the first real Gnostic I got to speak to face-to-face. Mostly, I was speaking to many online in other parts of the world, and I kind of felt like I was the only one here in Adelaide, Australia. So, I kind of felt like the one odd villager out. So, it was lovely to meet some other people. I’ve trained people, and other people have done what they wanted. Other people carried on as undercover Gnostics in this world. So, yeah. Cyd:Let me get a formal introduction to you here going. This is Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union, and we have connected through Substack, although you don’t have a Substack presence, do you? You don’t have a site? Bishop Nathan Wilson:No, no. We have got a website in the works, but it’s still in development. I’m not too tech-savvy, but we’ve got other people that are. So, we’re mostly on Facebook and YouTube at the moment. Cyd:Well, wonderful. Now, tell me the difference between the Gnostic Catholic Union and just the Gnostic Union. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, we used to be the Gnostic Catholic Union as well until I basically got in charge, and then I removed the Catholic part, which they only had for the Latin reasons, meaning universal, but not everyone knows that Latin subject. They’re just going to see Catholic, and usually today’s world, when you have a Catholic Union, it’s mostly those who have been brought up with a Catholic background that have now found Gnosis, and in turn, carry on those old traditions, which I don’t find anything wrong with. I think there’s many different ways to experience Gnosis. Gnosis doesn’t belong to any religion. It’s something you find within. It’s what you experience, spiritual knowledge gifted to you by what’s divine, by God, by the Father, by the Mother-Father, whichever term you like. The Source. It could even be referenced to, given you to by divine beings, by angels, angelic forces. So, Gnosis is something that you experience. So, it’s yours. It’s personal. It’s intimate. So, it’s a beautiful thing. So, with the Gnostic Union, we are more open to different Gnostic schools of thoughts. So, you could be a Sethian, a Valentinian. You could be a Carpucratian Gnostic, whichever. It doesn’t matter. You could be a Jewish Christian. Whichever the path is—we’re not really dogmatic. So, we appreciate all those who come into this spiritual life, seeking answers, and respecting each other’s beliefs, which is also rare. We have to remember, when we looked at the ancient schools of thought regarding Gnosticism, the ancient Gnostics got along. They didn’t kill each other. They didn’t fight. They had some disagreements, but they shared each other’s writings, which is fantastic. So, that’s very rare when you see that in a religious or even a spiritual school of thought. Many people can be my way only. So, that’s where Gnosis comes in, that inner spiritual experience. So, one’s own personal relationship with what’s divine. The Gnostic Union wants to encourage that, not to be bound by traditions. That’s mostly the difference between the Gnostic Union and the Gnostic Catholics, where they will be more bound by tradition, more bound by a dogmatic experience. We’re not really about that, not dissing any of that. We don’t mind, but we’re more open. Cyd:So, the Gnostic Catholics are still going on? That church is still active, but you have stepped away from them then, in that sense? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Yes, pretty much. So, we’ve done our own independent thing. So, that way we can have more schools of thought. I prefer it like that, so we can all grow from each other, which is something that I’m more about. So, that’s why I went into more of the Gnostic Union sense of things and removing the Catholic part. Some people didn’t like Catholic. Some people liked it and others were stoked that I removed that term from the group. I much prefer it. It’s less of a mouthful as well. I like things nice and simple as well. Cyd:Yes. So, it’s union—it's unity. That’s what the union means in the name, not like a labor union, but the union of Gnostics. That’s lovely. That’s very lovely. So, how many people are associating with the Gnostic Union at this point? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, we have a couple of other different groups from different parts of the world. We have a Gnostic Catholic group. I think they’re Gnostic Catholic Unitarians located in the Philippines. Then, we have other groups as well that associate with us. Within the Union itself, we have a couple of different ones. We have also side branches as well that used to be a part of the Gnostic Catholic Union, but there was some theological difference. So, some splitting went on. So, there’s other groups. We still recognize each other. Within the Gnostic Union at the moment. There is Bishop Jason, me, Bishop Nathan Wilson, Bishop Lorenzo, David and Michael, Randall over in South Africa. There’s also Priest Jeremy and Edgar and Rus. So, there’s quite a few. At the moment, it’s mostly men. We’re hoping to have some females join as well. We did have a couple of female members back in the Gnostic Catholic Union, but they ultimately retired. So, we’re hoping to expand. So, the Gnostic Union is kind of fresh on the scene. So, everything’s still building. Cyd:How fresh is it? How long have you been in existence here? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, in the Union itself, probably about almost two years now. It’s still maybe a year, year and a half, something like that there. So, it’s still growing in a sense. So, we’re doing okay, which is not too bad. We’re mostly on Facebook and YouTube. So, we do our online masses and group gatherings and stuff like that online as well. And mostly, just support each other’s individual works as well as promote each other’s work. And sometimes, I might edit a couple of videos of all of us together, give it to other people with their own channels, their own independent use, and then I’ll put it onto, say, the Union sites. Other people can go check it out as well. Cyd:I’ll be putting this up on my site. I’m going to post this to YouTube and make it for my audio podcast. But I’ll also give you the recording so that you can use it at your site if you’d like. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Oh, lovely. Lovely. I’d enjoy that as well. And again, thanks for reaching out to me. I very much enjoy speaking to like-minded individuals as well. And regarding even my translations that you brought me on to discuss as well, that’s relatively new as well. It took me about two years to fully actually translate. So, to get it all together, I use encyclopedias, I used Greek, Koine Greek dictionaries, as well as I used Bill Mounce, which is one of the top Koine Greek-speaking people in the world. I have a few friends that can speak Koine Greek as well as modern Greek as well. So, that also came in handy. So, it took me a while. I started doing that while I was still with the Gnostic Catholic Union and I didn’t finish it until the Gnostic Union. Cyd:So, tell us about, you’re speaking of your translation, tell us about that. It’s your New Testament, is it? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Yeah, I did the New Testament Gospels. I used Codex Sinaiticus because that was the oldest complete text, but then I wanted to do non-canonical. I didn’t know any Coptic at all, so I didn’t want to use any other people’s work. I just went to the Koine Greek, used what knowledge I did know, and I also used experts as well. So, I was able to look at every definition of the word and term and use. I did the Gospel of Thomas, which I actually first messed up on because I found out that the version I was looking at first was actually inspired by the Coptic version put into Koine Greek, and I realized it’s not the text. So, I went to the actual fragments themselves, and so I translated from there. It’s not very long. I didn’t use any AI recovery, so anything that wasn’t visible to our naked eye, I did not touch. So, I didn’t want to have any guessing involved. So, I just put what it was, and I did the Greek Gospel of Mary, as well as the Gospel of James, the Gospel of Peter, and I did three unknown Gospels, and they are little fragments, and they are Papyrus Oxyrhynchus. I have the names here. Actually, I better put that in—5072, and the other one was Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840 and the other one is Egerton Gospel. So, they’re little fragments. The titles are missing. We don’t know who wrote them, so they’re unknown, but they could and likely do predate the Gospels that we do have. So, they predate the fragments we have. So, that’s interesting. So, all the fragments we have are second century. It’s likely they predate the fragments that we have. So, I chose to do them, but the interesting side was the Egerton gospel, which was actually a two-sided text, and Bart D. Ehrman actually did side two, and I did side one. So, he didn’t realize that there was a side on one. So, that means he was only looking at digital copy only, just like me. So, he didn’t actually look at the actual Papyrus itself, and so when I did one-sided, I didn’t realize there was a double side to that text, and so otherwise I wouldn’t have done it. So, the interesting thing is side one has not been publicly released for public domain, where side two has been released, which is very suspect, if you ask me, and I didn’t like that. So, I thought I’d introduce some texts that are very little looked at that were very Gnostic, such as Jesus insulting the Pharisees for dipping in waters that pigs jumped into and making themselves look like prostitutes to attract men. Cyd:They’re highly offensive, yes. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Yes, and that’s why they really want to release that publicly. So, you have to pay a scholar for their works, and that’s not really fair. All this knowledge should be for free, especially when you’re looking at our own religious or spirituality or the text involved in that. Otherwise, we’re limiting ourselves, and that’s definitely not fair. So, I think we should be more open, and the text should be up for public display, public domain for everyone to have access to. So, that’s what I ultimately believe in. It’s one reason I chose to share my translations and make accessible for free digital copies. I didn’t want people to just buy my work rather than download the digital text and just read it for themselves. Go to the library, print it out. It might be cheaper. So, when I do sell my texts, I donate it, like some of it’s a charity anyway, to Make-A-Wish Foundation. So, that’s something I do on my end. So, everything I do, I try not to make money just for myself. I try to do other things with it because I’m not really materialistic. I live very much a monk lifestyle, so I read a lot. Cyd:Yeah. Yeah, I do too. I live like a nun, I say. I’ve got a little cloister where I sleep. I live in a one-room place, so it’s very interesting. Would you explain to us the difference between the Koine Greek and the Coptic Greek and which was written and why are there two different versions? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Okay, well the Coptic, when you see Coptic Greek, that’s devolving into Coptic. So, very early proto-Coptic is what scholars term, is the developing into it. You see it with Greeks in the very language. Otherwise, Coptic language very much is a mixture of Greek and Egyptian. So, Egyptian hieroglyph turned into writing basically, but mixed in with Greek. So, Greek was like the English of the past back then. Hebrew also borrowed from the Greek during the second temple period of Jesus’ time. So, the word Judaism and synagogue are Greek words, for instance. So, a lot of borrowing, but the Greeks also borrowed from the Canaanites, such as the Phoenician language or the alphabet. So, that’s also fascinating. So, the ancient past, it was all about borrowing and making it your own, you know. But yeah, with Greek as well, that would be also evolving as well. So, you have, within the gospel itself, you might have one word being spelt slightly different, but ultimately meaning the same thing. And all that is, is one dialect from another speaking from one coastal region to a different coastal region. Obviously, saying the same thing, it just might be the accent. So, that’s played different in the language. So, it’s like we see hilios or hilion, but it’s the same root message. It’s just one person’s pronouncing it in the market different from this region, because he’s closer to the shore and other ones closer to the inner cities. And that’s basically all. So, Greek’s very advanced. You can have one word that can mean ultimately different meanings. And some words you come across can have hundreds of meanings, and that can make things difficult when translating. So, with the Koine Greek, we only know 70% to 90% of the language. We know the 100% of the alphabetical, but we don’t know every context of use. So, because of that difficulty, I had to add alternative English translations. So, I realized then that every translation we’re reading is just based on someone else’s interpretation of that translation. And it’s like, oh, that kind of sucks, so I put them all in there. So, when you come across the word aftos, for he, she, it, they, them, this one, I leave it as all of that, so, you can choose what that means. Because Jesus is speaking to diverse audiences. He’s speaking to males and females, not just men. And that’s what people forget. It’s like the word for spirit is also very feminine in Hebrew. In Greek, it’s masculine and feminine. So, it’s used as both, which is fascinating as well for the spirit within us, you know. So, but again, that’s going back to that root meaning of feminine, because when you add in the word hagion pneuma you now have the Holy Spirit, but that’s a feminine word of it. Otherwise, the root word of masculine is hagios, but the female name or the feminine version of that concept is hagion. Cyd:Ah, that’s fascinating. Yeah. You run into the same problem when translating Chinese, because Chinese pictograms can just mean many, many things. So, I’ve studied the Tao Te Ching quite a bit, and everybody’s book that’s famous of the Tao Te Ching, it’s their translation out of a hundred choices for every word. So, it’s, I understand quite a bit what you’re saying there. Well, tell me this, what makes you a bishop? How is it that you’re calling yourself bishop? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, I was ordained by, well, back when it was the Gnostic Catholic Union, I was ordained by Bishop Bill Thomas, and he was the bishop of a church in Florida. He was running a church. He was an older man, so he’s kind of, he retired for a bit, and now he’s more of a wandering bishop, because he had trouble with the funds of running a church. It’d be quite expensive. So, he was part of an organization that was the Gnostic Catholic Union. A lot of members retired as well, then he took over, and then it kind of went on for a few years, and then they started retiring, and then I joined from there, and I was ordained, and I took up a course with them, started off as a deacon, then became a priest, and then as they were retiring, I was made bishop, basically, and so then I was left with a little bit of the reins. So, it was from there, it was a lot more—more churches were involved. So, some of that has also, a lot of them have also retired or ultimately changed theologies. One of the original members of the Gnostic Catholic Union, I believe, is now either an Orthodox priest or joined the Orthodox Church, and he renounces all his old Gnostic past, which is kind of a shame. So, sometimes that does happen. So, people become wanderers because of, people basically rely solely on one priest, oftentimes, which is also sad, and when one priest moves, people lose passion, and sometimes that’s how it is. So, I prefer to have people more independently on their own, not just say rely on me, I make other people bishops so they can carry on with their own, and from there, expand it. So, someone might have, say, the coin enough to start their own church, and from there, maybe, from there, do whatever they need. So, it inspires, and still something to bring a bit of community in, and have a little bit of recognition from other people, basically. So, I kept that term. I was almost considering to remove the title, bishops and priests, but a lot of the old members wanted to keep it as well, and some of the young ones did as well. So, I thought, well, I’ll keep the term for them in their sake. Otherwise, I was going to keep it as teachers, or brothers and sisters, but I still encourage our members to, when dealing with each other, not just sit there and call each other bishops, or bishopettes, or priests, or priestess, whichever term they prefer. I prefer to call us brothers and sisters, which is more stressed. Even with the outfit some people are talking about, I would tell them, remember that Jesus wouldn’t be wandering around with fancy robes, or wearing collared shirts, or wearing gold jewelry, and say, I’m doing now, in a sense. He was out in the wilderness, gathering with community. So, as blessed as those who are poor, you know, so, which was rare. So, a lot of people wanted money back then. So, he was very much for the poor, which is beautiful to see. There were rich Christians. It doesn’t mean that was strictly only for poor people only. There were ones who were shipfarers, and in turn, would carry their message throughout the ports, or from region to region. Cyd:I was just wondering–you are obviously a Christian Gnostic, as am I. I know that you’re open to all Gnosticism, but Gnostics who reject the notion of the Christ, or the need for the Christ, doesn’t that create some kind of difficulty, let’s say? Bishop Nathan Wilson:It would conflict a little bit, yes. I haven’t really come across ones that more reject the Christ. I wouldn’t mind. I have come across ones who have debated me over it in a sense, which I don’t mind in a sense, but I would also encourage them to say, look at the message. Ultimately, it’s about finding the Christ within, being Christ-like for yourself. It goes back to that root word of the first Christians for Christanos, being little Christs, little anointed ones. So, those who were taken on their masters teaching to be Christ-like. But say we have ones that don’t believe Jesus existed. I don’t mind that, because ultimately it is the message, but I will tell them I do believe because I have reasons. I would say for them to look up, say, Judas Kriakos, which is a grandson of Jesus, which is recorded in history. We have church father writings that actually whinged about Jesus’ family being Jewish Christians and not Catholic. So, that’s interesting. So, why would you whinge about a family if the man did not exist? For instance like that. But ultimately, there were some Gnostics that didn’t believe that Jesus existed, but was rather a spirit or was the myth that you took on yourself. So, I’m okay with that, as long as we don’t conflict with each other, with our hearts, as long as we’re not hating each other. So, we can have separate beliefs, as long as we respect those beliefs. Ultimately, that’s what would stop the disheartening and also the conflictions. end part one of interview Okay, we’re going to stop for this week. This is a good place to stop because next, Bishop Wilson goes on to discuss his translation of the New Testament and also some other Gnostic texts. So, we’ll spend next week talking about his translation that he calls the Gnostic Christian Truth Bible, and we’ll get into that. Also, I did record this entire interview as a Zoom video, and as soon as I get that edited, I’ll be posting it to YouTube so you will be able to find it and watch the interview as Bishop Nathan Wilson and I discuss these things. So, I hope to see you there, and thank you for listening this week, and we’ll pick it up again next week. Until then, God bless us all, and onward and upward. The Gnostic Union Facebook The Gnostic Union YouTube Channel

Bishop Nathan Wilson pt.1 Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Hey, this week I interviewed Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union, and it was a good long interview, so I’ll be breaking it up probably into three segments for the next three weeks here. Bishop Wilson earned a diploma of ministry from the Gnostic Catholic Union, and then he later went on to create The Gnostic Union, and he’ll tell you about that in this week’s episode. Here I’ll read you the intro from their website. “The Gnostic Union is an independent sacramental assembly of Gnostic Christian communities and individuals. It exists to uphold the Gnostic Christian traditions and to encourage and promote the work of Christ and the Holy Sophia in the world.As an international, independent, autonomous, non-political organization, the Gnostic Union is in no way dependent upon any other authority outside of its own administration. We are neither Roman Catholic, Orthodox, nor Protestant. We are Gnostic Christians that encourage self-development and connecting with the spirit within to build a personal relationship with God, the Monad, the Father. Our bishops, priests, and deacons are merely guides to help you on your spiritual journey. The Gnostic Union aligns itself with the history and teachings of the first Christians of early first century Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the Gospel of Thomas. We encourage new members to read from the Nag Hammadi and to understand how different early Christianity is from modern mainstream Christianity. We welcome all people, regardless of past religious backgrounds or faiths. Gnosis means knowledge, not just simple intellectual knowledge, but deep spiritual knowledge within you. Knowledge from the Spirit, from the Holy Spirit, and from and of God.” You see, I felt that that really went along with what we talk about here at Gnostic Insights, and so when Bishop Wilson reached out to me via our Substack Gnostic Reformation site, I was more than happy to engage in conversation with him, and I thought that having a talk with him along with you and then broadcasting it would be helpful to all of us. Here’s the last little bit that it says on their Gnostic Union homepage, which is only one page long. It’s still in development. It says, “Gnostic Christian theology differs greatly from Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Gnostic Christianity does not depend upon the authority of a Pope or the Church. Instead, it emphasizes being reborn in Spirit, building a personal spiritual relationship with God, and becoming Christ-like by enacting the teachings of Jesus Christ in our lives. Gnostic Christianity began from earlier Gnostic traditions, such as Hermeticism and Mysticism, which arose from Jewish mystics. Gnosticism itself is much older than Judaism, and traces back to the Hermetics of ancient Egypt, the Druids, and the ancient Greeks. Although many Gnostic Christian theologies differed, they shared a common theme of a trapped spiritual essence within the material body, the divine spark, the soul, or the spark of Sophia. The ultimate goal for Gnostic Christians was to become like Jesus, to be reborn in Spirit, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Sophia, and to know thyself, reflecting the divine essence within.” As you know, here at Gnostic Insights and the Gnostic Reformation, I stay away from the histories, because it seems to me that what is important is the here-and-now relationship we have with the Christ and with the Fullness of God. And so, I’m just not all that interested in history, but as you’ll hear from these ongoing interviews with Bishop Wilson, he’s all about history. So, for those of you who have been missing that strain of thought in our Gnostic Insights here, you’ll get an earful for the next three weeks. So without further ado, here's part one of my interview with Bishop Nathan Wilson of The Gnostic Union. Cyd: Well, such a pleasure to see you. You have such a nice smile. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure. It’s always lovely to meet other Gnostics, other spiritual people, all those with open hearts and open minds. It’s always lovely to see. Cyd:Yes. Yes. Yes, it’s true. I wish I had more of these people close around me. Do you have neighbors who are Gnostic? Do you have people you can actually face-to-face with? Bishop Nathan Wilson:I’ve met a priest that I can now speak face-to-face, which was really good. So, it was the first real Gnostic I got to speak to face-to-face. Mostly, I was speaking to many online in other parts of the world, and I kind of felt like I was the only one here in Adelaide, Australia. So, I kind of felt like the one odd villager out. So, it was lovely to meet some other people. I’ve trained people, and other people have done what they wanted. Other people carried on as undercover Gnostics in this world. So, yeah. Cyd:Let me get a formal introduction to you here going. This is Bishop Nathan Wilson of the Gnostic Union, and we have connected through Substack, although you don’t have a Substack presence, do you? You don’t have a site? Bishop Nathan Wilson:No, no. We have got a website in the works, but it’s still in development. I’m not too tech-savvy, but we’ve got other people that are. So, we’re mostly on Facebook and YouTube at the moment. Cyd:Well, wonderful. Now, tell me the difference between the Gnostic Catholic Union and just the Gnostic Union. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, we used to be the Gnostic Catholic Union as well until I basically got in charge, and then I removed the Catholic part, which they only had for the Latin reasons, meaning universal, but not everyone knows that Latin subject. They’re just going to see Catholic, and usually today’s world, when you have a Catholic Union, it’s mostly those who have been brought up with a Catholic background that have now found Gnosis, and in turn, carry on those old traditions, which I don’t find anything wrong with. I think there’s many different ways to experience Gnosis. Gnosis doesn’t belong to any religion. It’s something you find within. It’s what you experience, spiritual knowledge gifted to you by what’s divine, by God, by the Father, by the Mother-Father, whichever term you like. The Source. It could even be referenced to, given you to by divine beings, by angels, angelic forces. So, Gnosis is something that you experience. So, it’s yours. It’s personal. It’s intimate. So, it’s a beautiful thing. So, with the Gnostic Union, we are more open to different Gnostic schools of thoughts. So, you could be a Sethian, a Valentinian. You could be a Carpucratian Gnostic, whichever. It doesn’t matter. You could be a Jewish Christian. Whichever the path is—we’re not really dogmatic. So, we appreciate all those who come into this spiritual life, seeking answers, and respecting each other’s beliefs, which is also rare. We have to remember, when we looked at the ancient schools of thought regarding Gnosticism, the ancient Gnostics got along. They didn’t kill each other. They didn’t fight. They had some disagreements, but they shared each other’s writings, which is fantastic. So, that’s very rare when you see that in a religious or even a spiritual school of thought. Many people can be my way only. So, that’s where Gnosis comes in, that inner spiritual experience. So, one’s own personal relationship with what’s divine. The Gnostic Union wants to encourage that, not to be bound by traditions. That’s mostly the difference between the Gnostic Union and the Gnostic Catholics, where they will be more bound by tradition, more bound by a dogmatic experience. We’re not really about that, not dissing any of that. We don’t mind, but we’re more open. Cyd:So, the Gnostic Catholics are still going on? That church is still active, but you have stepped away from them then, in that sense? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Yes, pretty much. So, we’ve done our own independent thing. So, that way we can have more schools of thought. I prefer it like that, so we can all grow from each other, which is something that I’m more about. So, that’s why I went into more of the Gnostic Union sense of things and removing the Catholic part. Some people didn’t like Catholic. Some people liked it and others were stoked that I removed that term from the group. I much prefer it. It’s less of a mouthful as well. I like things nice and simple as well. Cyd:Yes. So, it’s union—it's unity. That’s what the union means in the name, not like a labor union, but the union of Gnostics. That’s lovely. That’s very lovely. So, how many people are associating with the Gnostic Union at this point? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, we have a couple of other different groups from different parts of the world. We have a Gnostic Catholic group. I think they’re Gnostic Catholic Unitarians located in the Philippines. Then, we have other groups as well that associate with us. Within the Union itself, we have a couple of different ones. We have also side branches as well that used to be a part of the Gnostic Catholic Union, but there was some theological difference. So, some splitting went on. So, there’s other groups. We still recognize each other. Within the Gnostic Union at the moment. There is Bishop Jason, me, Bishop Nathan Wilson, Bishop Lorenzo, David and Michael, Randall over in South Africa. There’s also Priest Jeremy and Edgar and Rus. So, there’s quite a few. At the moment, it’s mostly men. We’re hoping to have some females join as well. We did have a couple of female members back in the Gnostic Catholic Union, but they ultimately retired. So, we’re hoping to expand. So, the Gnostic Union is kind of fresh on the scene. So, everything’s still building. Cyd:How fresh is it? How long have you been in existence here? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, in the Union itself, probably about almost two years now. It’s still maybe a year, year and a half, something like that there. So, it’s still growing in a sense. So, we’re doing okay, which is not too bad. We’re mostly on Facebook and YouTube. So, we do our online masses and group gatherings and stuff like that online as well. And mostly, just support each other’s individual works as well as promote each other’s work. And sometimes, I might edit a couple of videos of all of us together, give it to other people with their own channels, their own independent use, and then I’ll put it onto, say, the Union sites. Other people can go check it out as well. Cyd:I’ll be putting this up on my site. I’m going to post this to YouTube and make it for my audio podcast. But I’ll also give you the recording so that you can use it at your site if you’d like. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Oh, lovely. Lovely. I’d enjoy that as well. And again, thanks for reaching out to me. I very much enjoy speaking to like-minded individuals as well. And regarding even my translations that you brought me on to discuss as well, that’s relatively new as well. It took me about two years to fully actually translate. So, to get it all together, I use encyclopedias, I used Greek, Koine Greek dictionaries, as well as I used Bill Mounce, which is one of the top Koine Greek-speaking people in the world. I have a few friends that can speak Koine Greek as well as modern Greek as well. So, that also came in handy. So, it took me a while. I started doing that while I was still with the Gnostic Catholic Union and I didn’t finish it until the Gnostic Union. Cyd:So, tell us about, you’re speaking of your translation, tell us about that. It’s your New Testament, is it? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Yeah, I did the New Testament Gospels. I used Codex Sinaiticus because that was the oldest complete text, but then I wanted to do non-canonical. I didn’t know any Coptic at all, so I didn’t want to use any other people’s work. I just went to the Koine Greek, used what knowledge I did know, and I also used experts as well. So, I was able to look at every definition of the word and term and use. I did the Gospel of Thomas, which I actually first messed up on because I found out that the version I was looking at first was actually inspired by the Coptic version put into Koine Greek, and I realized it’s not the text. So, I went to the actual fragments themselves, and so I translated from there. It’s not very long. I didn’t use any AI recovery, so anything that wasn’t visible to our naked eye, I did not touch. So, I didn’t want to have any guessing involved. So, I just put what it was, and I did the Greek Gospel of Mary, as well as the Gospel of James, the Gospel of Peter, and I did three unknown Gospels, and they are little fragments, and they are Papyrus Oxyrhynchus. I have the names here. Actually, I better put that in—5072, and the other one was Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840 and the other one is Egerton Gospel. So, they’re little fragments. The titles are missing. We don’t know who wrote them, so they’re unknown, but they could and likely do predate the Gospels that we do have. So, they predate the fragments we have. So, that’s interesting. So, all the fragments we have are second century. It’s likely they predate the fragments that we have. So, I chose to do them, but the interesting side was the Egerton gospel, which was actually a two-sided text, and Bart D. Ehrman actually did side two, and I did side one. So, he didn’t realize that there was a side on one. So, that means he was only looking at digital copy only, just like me. So, he didn’t actually look at the actual Papyrus itself, and so when I did one-sided, I didn’t realize there was a double side to that text, and so otherwise I wouldn’t have done it. So, the interesting thing is side one has not been publicly released for public domain, where side two has been released, which is very suspect, if you ask me, and I didn’t like that. So, I thought I’d introduce some texts that are very little looked at that were very Gnostic, such as Jesus insulting the Pharisees for dipping in waters that pigs jumped into and making themselves look like prostitutes to attract men. Cyd:They’re highly offensive, yes. Bishop Nathan Wilson:Yes, and that’s why they really want to release that publicly. So, you have to pay a scholar for their works, and that’s not really fair. All this knowledge should be for free, especially when you’re looking at our own religious or spirituality or the text involved in that. Otherwise, we’re limiting ourselves, and that’s definitely not fair. So, I think we should be more open, and the text should be up for public display, public domain for everyone to have access to. So, that’s what I ultimately believe in. It’s one reason I chose to share my translations and make accessible for free digital copies. I didn’t want people to just buy my work rather than download the digital text and just read it for themselves. Go to the library, print it out. It might be cheaper. So, when I do sell my texts, I donate it, like some of it’s a charity anyway, to Make-A-Wish Foundation. So, that’s something I do on my end. So, everything I do, I try not to make money just for myself. I try to do other things with it because I’m not really materialistic. I live very much a monk lifestyle, so I read a lot. Cyd:Yeah. Yeah, I do too. I live like a nun, I say. I’ve got a little cloister where I sleep. I live in a one-room place, so it’s very interesting. Would you explain to us the difference between the Koine Greek and the Coptic Greek and which was written and why are there two different versions? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Okay, well the Coptic, when you see Coptic Greek, that’s devolving into Coptic. So, very early proto-Coptic is what scholars term, is the developing into it. You see it with Greeks in the very language. Otherwise, Coptic language very much is a mixture of Greek and Egyptian. So, Egyptian hieroglyph turned into writing basically, but mixed in with Greek. So, Greek was like the English of the past back then. Hebrew also borrowed from the Greek during the second temple period of Jesus’ time. So, the word Judaism and synagogue are Greek words, for instance. So, a lot of borrowing, but the Greeks also borrowed from the Canaanites, such as the Phoenician language or the alphabet. So, that’s also fascinating. So, the ancient past, it was all about borrowing and making it your own, you know. But yeah, with Greek as well, that would be also evolving as well. So, you have, within the gospel itself, you might have one word being spelt slightly different, but ultimately meaning the same thing. And all that is, is one dialect from another speaking from one coastal region to a different coastal region. Obviously, saying the same thing, it just might be the accent. So, that’s played different in the language. So, it’s like we see hilios or hilion, but it’s the same root message. It’s just one person’s pronouncing it in the market different from this region, because he’s closer to the shore and other ones closer to the inner cities. And that’s basically all. So, Greek’s very advanced. You can have one word that can mean ultimately different meanings. And some words you come across can have hundreds of meanings, and that can make things difficult when translating. So, with the Koine Greek, we only know 70% to 90% of the language. We know the 100% of the alphabetical, but we don’t know every context of use. So, because of that difficulty, I had to add alternative English translations. So, I realized then that every translation we’re reading is just based on someone else’s interpretation of that translation. And it’s like, oh, that kind of sucks, so I put them all in there. So, when you come across the word aftos, for he, she, it, they, them, this one, I leave it as all of that, so, you can choose what that means. Because Jesus is speaking to diverse audiences. He’s speaking to males and females, not just men. And that’s what people forget. It’s like the word for spirit is also very feminine in Hebrew. In Greek, it’s masculine and feminine. So, it’s used as both, which is fascinating as well for the spirit within us, you know. So, but again, that’s going back to that root meaning of feminine, because when you add in the word hagion pneuma you now have the Holy Spirit, but that’s a feminine word of it. Otherwise, the root word of masculine is hagios, but the female name or the feminine version of that concept is hagion. Cyd:Ah, that’s fascinating. Yeah. You run into the same problem when translating Chinese, because Chinese pictograms can just mean many, many things. So, I’ve studied the Tao Te Ching quite a bit, and everybody’s book that’s famous of the Tao Te Ching, it’s their translation out of a hundred choices for every word. So, it’s, I understand quite a bit what you’re saying there. Well, tell me this, what makes you a bishop? How is it that you’re calling yourself bishop? Bishop Nathan Wilson:Well, I was ordained by, well, back when it was the Gnostic Catholic Union, I was ordained by Bishop Bill Thomas, and he was the bishop of a church in Florida. He was running a church. He was an older man, so he’s kind of, he retired for a bit, and now he’s more of a wandering bishop, because he had trouble with the funds of running a church. It’d be quite expensive. So, he was part of an organization that was the Gnostic Catholic Union. A lot of members retired as well, then he took over, and then it kind of went on for a few years, and then they started retiring, and then I joined from there, and I was ordained, and I took up a course with them, started off as a deacon, then became a priest, and then as they were retiring, I was made bishop, basically, and so then I was left with a little bit of the reins. So, it was from there, it was a lot more—more churches were involved. So, some of that has also, a lot of them have also retired or ultimately changed theologies. One of the original members of the Gnostic Catholic Union, I believe, is now either an Orthodox priest or joined the Orthodox Church, and he renounces all his old Gnostic past, which is kind of a shame. So, sometimes that does happen. So, people become wanderers because of, people basically rely solely on one priest, oftentimes, which is also sad, and when one priest moves, people lose passion, and sometimes that’s how it is. So, I prefer to have people more independently on their own, not just say rely on me, I make other people bishops so they can carry on with their own, and from there, expand it. So, someone might have, say, the coin enough to start their own church, and from there, maybe, from there, do whatever they need. So, it inspires, and still something to bring a bit of community in, and have a little bit of recognition from other people, basically. So, I kept that term. I was almost considering to remove the title, bishops and priests, but a lot of the old members wanted to keep it as well, and some of the young ones did as well. So, I thought, well, I’ll keep the term for them in their sake. Otherwise, I was going to keep it as teachers, or brothers and sisters, but I still encourage our members to, when dealing with each other, not just sit there and call each other bishops, or bishopettes, or priests, or priestess, whichever term they prefer. I prefer to call us brothers and sisters, which is more stressed. Even with the outfit some people are talking about, I would tell them, remember that Jesus wouldn’t be wandering around with fancy robes, or wearing collared shirts, or wearing gold jewelry, and say, I’m doing now, in a sense. He was out in the wilderness, gathering with community. So, as blessed as those who are poor, you know, so, which was rare. So, a lot of people wanted money back then. So, he was very much for the poor, which is beautiful to see. There were rich Christians. It doesn’t mean that was strictly only for poor people only. There were ones who were shipfarers, and in turn, would carry their message throughout the ports, or from region to region. Cyd:I was just wondering–you are obviously a Christian Gnostic, as am I. I know that you’re open to all Gnosticism, but Gnostics who reject the notion of the Christ, or the need for the Christ, doesn’t that create some kind of difficulty, let’s say? Bishop Nathan Wilson:It would conflict a little bit, yes. I haven’t really come across ones that more reject the Christ. I wouldn’t mind. I have come across ones who have debated me over it in a sense, which I don’t mind in a sense, but I would also encourage them to say, look at the message. Ultimately, it’s about finding the Christ within, being Christ-like for yourself. It goes back to that root word of the first Christians for Christanos, being little Christs, little anointed ones. So, those who were taken on their masters teaching to be Christ-like. But say we have ones that don’t believe Jesus existed. I don’t mind that, because ultimately it is the message, but I will tell them I do believe because I have reasons. I would say for them to look up, say, Judas Kriakos, which is a grandson of Jesus, which is recorded in history. We have church father writings that actually whinged about Jesus’ family being Jewish Christians and not Catholic. So, that’s interesting. So, why would you whinge about a family if the man did not exist? For instance like that. But ultimately, there were some Gnostics that didn’t believe that Jesus existed, but was rather a spirit or was the myth that you took on yourself. So, I’m okay with that, as long as we don’t conflict with each other, with our hearts, as long as we’re not hating each other. So, we can have separate beliefs, as long as we respect those beliefs. Ultimately, that’s what would stop the disheartening and also the conflictions. end part one of interview Okay, we’re going to stop for this week. This is a good place to stop because next, Bishop Wilson goes on to discuss his translation of the New Testament and also some other Gnostic texts. So, we’ll spend next week talking about his translation that he calls the Gnostic Christian Truth Bible, and we’ll get into that. Also, I did record this entire interview as a Zoom video, and as soon as I get that edited, I’ll be posting it to YouTube so you will be able to find it and watch the interview as Bishop Nathan Wilson and I discuss these things. So, I hope to see you there, and thank you for listening this week, and we’ll pick it up again next week. Until then, God bless us all, and onward and upward. The Gnostic Union Facebook The Gnostic Union YouTube Channel

What if the version of the Old Testament most commonly quoted by the New Testament writers is one that most Christians have never read? In this study, we explore the Septuagint (LXX)—the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was widely used throughout the world of Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church.You'll discover how the Septuagint came to be, why it became so influential, and several places where Jesus appears to quote directly from it. We'll also discuss common objections, the relationship between the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, and practical ways you can begin reading the LXX for yourself.Whether you're interested in biblical history, textual studies, Bible translations, or the world of the New Testament, this video will help you better understand the Scriptures that shaped the language and thought of the Apostolic era.

Title: “Let No One Deceive You” Part 2 Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 FCF: We often struggle fearing the uncertainty of the end times. Prop: Because God will cause the man of lawlessness to be revealed and to be destroyed, we must not let anyone deceive us. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. In a moment we'll begin reading in verse 3 and read through verse 12 again. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. Last week we spoke at length about the coming of the man of lawlessness both who he is and what he is going to do. We approached this topic from each eschatological framework within Christendom by trying to understand each framework itself and how they view end times prophesy. The oldest beliefs concerning the end times conclude that things will get much worse for Christians prior to the Lord Jesus returning. It seems that the Thessalonians assumed this as well as they saw their persecution level rise steeply. But Paul corrects them by telling them that the Day of the Lord has not come. He then goes on to describing the man of lawlessness and apostasy that must precede Christ's coming. This event and the man is so blasphemous that no human has ever been so bold as to claim to be over all other gods, sit in God's temple, and claim to be Yahweh Himself. But this man of lawlessness will. That is why it cannot be the Day of the Lord yet. Today, Paul will continue his discussion of the man of lawlessness and the sequence of end times events leading up to the return of Christ. Let's get back to his discussion. Please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the Word of God as it is read. Invocation: Sovereign King of Kings, we come to You today as Your humble people whom you have called out of darkness with a divinely given faith. We hold fast to Christ's work with a rope that was made by Your hands. Such a rope will endure all the lies of the evil one. But this does not mean we can be complacent or passive. We must actively cling to the rope of faith in Christ. Our anchor holds through the fiercest storms. And our faith, if it is saving, will hold to Him. So, Lord, help us to cling to what you have revealed. That we might trust fully in your sovereign hand to uphold us and to bring about these terrible things in their due time. That we might trust Your promise that a New Kingdom comes and that we might hold fast to Christ until it does. We pray this in His name… Amen. Transition: [Slide 2] “If the Lord will not suffer it, neither men nor devils can do it.” C.H. Spurgeon “God is working out His eternal purpose, not only in spite of human and satanic opposition but by means of them.” A.W. Pink [Slide 3] “Satan can do nothing without the command of God to whose dominion he is subject.” John Calvin The devil's way of extinguishing goodness is God's way of advancing it.” George Barlow [Slide 4] “The hands of the wicked cannot stir one moment before God allows them to begin and cannot stir one moment after God commands them to stop.” “The wickedest enemies of God are only axes and saws and hammers in His hands and are ignorantly His instruments for doing His work in the world.” J.C. Ryle [Slide 5] “The whole history of the world is discovered to be but a contest between the wisdom of God and the cunning of Satan and fallen men. The outcome of the contest is not in doubt.” “God's plan will continue on God's schedule.” A.W. Tozer “To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's will may frighten the godless, but it stabilizes the saints.” J. I. Packer Let these words sharpen your mind to understand the text this morning. I.) God will determine when the man of lawlessness is revealed, we must not let anyone deceive us. (6-8a) a. [Slide 6] 6 - And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. i. After Paul calls to their attention that he has taught all this to them before, he once again uses the phrase “you know.” ii. We saw this phrase come up repeatedly in 1 Thessalonians. But this is the first time Paul banks on their previous knowledge to make his point in this letter. iii. What do they know? iv. They know what restrains the man of lawlessness now. v. Well, Paul, it is all well and good that they know what restrains this man – but WE DON'T! vi. This gives us one of the most perplexing questions regarding end times prophesy that we have. vii. Who or what is restraining the Man of Lawlessness? viii. Who or what is keeping the Man of Lawlessness from committing his blasphemies and leading this global apostasy? ix. [Slide 7] The uncertainty is centered on four concepts. 1. First, that Paul refers to this restrainer as an impersonal force here in verse 6 and then later as a personal being in verse 7. Yet it does not appear that he is referring to two things. So how can something be both impersonal (neuter gendered participle) and then personal (masculine gendered participle)? 2. Second, the restrainer could be seen either positively or negatively. Is it a good thing or bad thing that the man of lawlessness is held back? Even as a Christian that is hard to answer. Especially since the Lord's return happens after he comes. 3. Third, what does it mean that the restrainer is taken out of the way? Is this by force? Is it violent? 4. Finally, that Paul does not name the restrainer raises the question, why? Why would Paul not name it? a. That question is actually easy to answer. Because the Thessalonians already knew who or what he was talking about. b. But the follow up question is much harder. c. Since this letter is breathed out by God, why is God being unclear? Why didn't God move Paul to write the name of the restrainer, or at least spell it out more clearly? i. Is it held in mystery intentionally to prevent someone or something from stopping, avoiding, or hindering the work of the restrainer? ii. Would Paul or the Thessalonians be harmed or in danger if the restrainer was named? iii. Is God keeping Paul from inadvertent praise or worship of the restrainer? iv. Has God included enough hints within the text to deduce the restrainer's identity already? x. [Slide 8] Because of these aspects of uncertainty, there have been several options put forward which arrange themselves into 4 general categories. 1. Humans a. The Roman Empire and the Emperor – As agents preventing the rise of lawlessness. i. This answers why Paul would not have named it but it raises other issues. ii. Is Paul placing the coming of the Man of lawlessness necessarily AFTER the fall of Rome? Did Paul expect Rome to fall soon? If he did, this is the only place in all his writings that he assumes so. b. Human government – i. In that things haven't quite been aligned for such a man to step onto the scene, and humans generally standing for moral goodness by punishing the wicked and helping the innocent is what is preventing this from occurring. ii. This is a more general version of the first one, which sheds the problem of Rome falling but inherits the same problems in that it is much less likely that all human government topples? c. The Jewish State – The fall of apostate Judaism. Although one wonders how and why this is preventing the man of lawlessness from coming. This would be a postmil position in reference to seeing the events described here having nothing to do with the end times and everything to do with AD 70. 2. [Slide 9] Christians a. The preaching of the gospel and Paul the apostle– God's Kingdom is still advancing. i. It is difficult to understand how Paul might see himself or the work of the gospel as being the thing preventing the coming of the man of lawlessness. ii. This is linked to both the Amil and Postmil position although Postmil still sees this as not talking about end times at all. b. The church – Being salt and light. i. The Mid-Tribulational Premillennial camp believes this. ii. Once the rapture happens half way through the tribulation, this makes way for the Man of Lawlessness to utter his blasphemies and there is none to rebuke him. iii. But why would Paul not mention it? Why keep this mystery from the church? And even though the church is salt and light – it is hard to see or imagine how we are preventing such a powerful man from coming just by existing. c. Generally speaking, I tend to see every human answer, believer or unbeliever, as severely underestimating the power of his man and his apostasy. So what about some non-human categories. 3. [Slide 10] Angels a. The Angel from heaven with the key to the Abyss and a great chain - The binding of Satan – i. During the Millennial reign an unnamed angel who comes down and does not fall down from heaven, has the key to the abyss and binds Satan for 1000 years. ii. Later Satan is released for a time and leads an army to battle against Christ's people. iii. Amillennialism would say that the restrainer then is this angel and that Satan is currently bound which is why the man of lawlessness has not come yet. iv. This answers the secrecy with the need to hide truth from the forces of darkness. However, taking this view forces us to take Revelation 19 and 20's description of these events not as a chronological record of events but as the order in which John saw the visions. b. Demonic infighting i. Another view espouses that the forces of darkness are not united and as long as this is so, the man of lawlessness will not come. ii. Paul keeps this hidden to keep them from being united. iii. However, the New Testament in no way suggests or hints at the forces of darkness being disunited. iv. If anything, it seems that Satan has rallied them and leads them. The New Testament says it is the Devil and his angels. This seems to speak of unity not disunity. c. Angelic Warfare i. When the man of lawlessness is mentioned in Daniel, in close proximity we have this report that Michael the archangel is battling against other fallen angelic creatures and holding them at bay. ii. One interpretation then is that this is talking about angelic entities fighting demonic entities and holding things the way they are until they are removed. iii. Secrecy then is to prevent Paul or the Thessalonians from worshipping these entities or praying to them instead of to God. iv. One wonders how simply suggesting angelic warfare would tempt them to worship angels though? Certainly, other parts of scripture mention this. And Paul has touted the growth and endurance of their faith. d. Michael the Arch Angel – i. This is a more specific interpretation of the last one. ii. And bears the same evidence. iii. Again we might wonder what the real danger would be that they would worship these entities by simply stating that they restrain the man of lawlessness from coming. iv. Other passages in the New Testament name Michael and Gabriel. 4. [Slide 11] God Himself a. The providence of God – i. Which summarizes everything we've just said so far. ii. In the end, God's providence is His working in normal and creaturely agency as well as intervening in supernatural ways to bring about His will. iii. Of course we might wonder why Paul doesn't simply say it. iv. Perhaps the Lord led him to include enough clues in the text itself for us to determine that this is so. b. The Holy Spirit - i. By this it is meant that the Holy Spirit does powerfully and intentionally intercede to prevent this man from stepping onto the scene. ii. The word Spirit in Greek is neuter gendered and when the adjective “holy” is used to describe the third person of the Godhead, it too is neuter in gender. iii. But when the Scriptures substitute a pronoun for the Holy Spirit, they do not use “it” but “He.” Thus, this could explain why Paul uses a neuter and then a masculine participle to describe the restrainer. iv. But why not call out the work of the Spirit here? v. Although quite uncertain, Paul has not spoken much about the Spirit of God in either 1 or 2 Thessalonians. 1. Not speaking of this text, commentators have remarked on the absence of the third person of the Godhead suggesting that perhaps there was some connection between the Spirit's Work and the accusation of the Jews in Thessalonica that Paul was an insurrectionist. 2. So perhaps Paul keeps his references to the Spirit to a minimum and certainly never in a context suggesting that He is actively opposing some human power from rising, in order to spare the Thessalonians more grief from local Jews should this teaching fall into the wrong hands. xi. Some of you may recognize that I do not normally include so much detail when we discuss uncertain things in the scripture. xii. [Slide 12] Here is my protocol when dealing with interpretational discrepancies in a sermon. 1. If I am reasonably convinced of a specific interpretation, I won't usually even bring up other options. I will present it as the only interpretation. I usually do this when I thought the passage said something and most if not all the commentators I consulted say the same or similar things. 2. If I am somewhat convinced of a specific interpretation, I will usually give other options but present my interpretation as the best without a deep analysis of the others. 3. If I am convinced but without any assurance, I'll give all the options and state pros and cons to both before arriving on my conclusion. 4. If I remain uncertain… I am going to give you every option and their problems and probably not pick a conclusion. xiii. Can you guess which one we are on today?

Maranatha: Our Lord is Coming! The Rapture of the Church    In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1-3) The scene is etched forever in the sacred record of Scripture. It is the night of betrayal. The Passover supper has been eaten. The traitor has gone out into the darkness. The eleven remaining disciples sit in stunned silence as the weight of impending loss presses upon their souls.    Their Master has spoken plainly of His departure. He has washed their feet. He has given them the new commandment of love. And now, with the shadow of Gethsemane already falling across His face, the Lord Jesus Christ turns to address the deepest fear in their hearts. He does not offer vague religious platitudes. He does not speak in the language of uncertainty. Instead, He utters words that carry the full force of divine certainty, words that have echoed down through two thousand years of church history as the unbreakable promise of His personal return.   Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.   These verses stand as the cornerstone of the doctrine of the Rapture of the church, the blessed hope that has sustained persecuted saints, comforted grieving families, and ignited holy urgency in every generation of believers. Yet the full power of this promise is often missed in English translation.    The blazing heart of the passage lies in the Greek construction of the words “I will come again,” and it is there that the exposition must linger with scholarly precision and devotional weight. The verb translated “I will come again” is the present indicative active of the Greek word erchomai—literally, “I am coming.” It is not the simple future tense that one might expect for a distant event.  It is the present tense employed in a manner called the futuristic present tense. This is no grammatical accident. It is a deliberate choice by the Holy Spirit through the pen of the apostle John.    In classical and Koine Greek, the present tense can be used to describe a future action when that action is viewed by the speaker as so certain, so inevitable, and so imminent that it is as good as already unfolding before the eyes. The futuristic present tense does not weaken the promise; it intensifies it. It lifts the event out of the realm of mere prediction and plants it squarely in the realm of divine declaration. Jesus does not say, “I might come someday if conditions allow.”  He declares with the full authority of the Son of God, “I am coming.” The present tense shouts certainty. It breathes imminence.    It carries the weight of a future so fixed in the eternal counsels of the Godhead that the Speaker can speak of it as already in motion.   This futuristic present is not unique to this verse, but its placement here is profound.    The same construction appears elsewhere in the Gospel of John when Jesus describes events that are absolutely assured in the divine plan. The grammar itself becomes a theological hammer, driving home the truth that the return of Christ for His own is not a distant possibility but a present reality in the mind of the Savior.    He is even now, from the vantage point of eternity, in the act of coming. The promise is so certain that the tense of the verb collapses the future into the present. This is the grammatical foundation upon which the entire doctrine of the Rapture rests. The Rapture is not an afterthought in the plan of God.        It is the next great event on the divine calendar for the church of Jesus Christ, an event so fixed and so near that the Lord Himself can announce it in the present tense: “I am coming.”   The Rapture of the church is the personal, visible, and audible return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds to receive unto Himself every believer, both living and dead, and to take them to the place He has prepared in the Father's house. It is distinct from the Second Coming, which will occur at the end of the Tribulation when Christ returns to earth in power and great glory to judge the nations and establish His millennial kingdom.  The Rapture is the moment when the Bridegroom comes for His bride before the wrath of the Lamb is poured out upon a Christ-rejecting world. It is sudden. It is secret to the world but glorious to the saints.    It is the fulfillment of the promise given in the Upper Room, and it stands as the great hope of every blood-bought child of God.   No passage of Scripture unfolds this event with greater clarity and comfort than the words of the apostle Paul in First Thessalonians chapter four, verses thirteen through eighteen.    These verses were written by divine revelation to correct the ignorance of the Thessalonian believers concerning those who had died in Christ. The apostle writes: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.   Consider the weight of each phrase. The apostle begins by lifting the veil of ignorance. Death is not the end for the believer; it is merely sleep for the body while the spirit is present with the Lord.    The sorrow of the Thessalonian Christians is real, but it is not hopeless sorrow. It is sorrow anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because He died and rose, those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. The dead in Christ are not left behind. They will not miss the Rapture.    Their spirits, already in the presence of the Lord, will be reunited with their resurrected bodies at this moment.   Then comes the heart of the revelation: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” This is not human speculation. This is not apostolic opinion. This is direct revelation from the ascended Christ Himself.  The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven. Notice the personal emphasis. It is not an angel. It is not a representative.    The Lord Himself— the same Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee, who hung upon the cross, who burst from the tomb, who ascended from the Mount of Olives—He Himself shall descend. And He shall descend with a shout.    The Greek word for “shout” is keleusma, a military command, a royal summons, a cry of authority that will pierce the heavens and shake the graves.    Accompanying that shout will be the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The trumpet does not signal judgment here; it signals assembly. It is the signal for the final gathering of the redeemed.   The sequence is precise and powerful. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Their bodies, sown in corruption, will be raised in incorruption.    The graves will surrender their prey. Then—and only then—we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. The word “caught up” is the Greek harpazo, a word that means to seize, to snatch away by force, to carry off suddenly. It is the same word used in Acts 8:39 when the Spirit caught away Philip, and in Revelation 12:5 when the man child is caught up to God.    It pictures a violent, irresistible removal from this earth. No believer will be left behind. No one who has trusted Christ will miss this moment. Living and resurrected saints will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The meeting place is not on the earth. It is in the air, in the clouds, the very atmosphere where the Lord will receive His own unto Himself exactly as He promised in John 14:3.   And then the final, glorious declaration: “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Not for a thousand years. Not for a million years. Forever. The Rapture is not a temporary event.    It is the beginning of an eternal union. The bride will be taken to the place prepared in the Father's house, and there she will remain with her Bridegroom throughout the ages of ages. This is the comfort with which the apostle commands believers to comfort one another. It is not a doctrine for debate. It is a doctrine for consolation in the face of death and for courage in the face of life.   The same apostle who received this revelation also unfolds the mystery of the bodily change that will occur at the Rapture.      In First Corinthians chapter fifteen, verses fifty-one and fifty-two, he writes: Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.   This is the mystery that was hidden in ages past but is now revealed. Not every believer will die. There will be a generation of Christians alive at the moment of the Rapture. Those believers will not sleep; they will be changed.      The change will be instantaneous—“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” The Greek word for “moment” is atomos, from which we derive the English word “atom.”    It means an indivisible unit of time, the smallest possible fragment of a second. Faster than the eye can blink, faster than the mind can comprehend, the transformation will occur.  The corruptible will put on incorruption. The mortal will put on immortality. The bodies that have groaned under the weight of sin and sickness will be glorified, conformed to the image of the risen Christ.    The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised, and the living will be changed. This is the power of the Rapture. It is not a gradual process. It is a sudden, sovereign act of God that will leave the world stunned and the saints transported.   The early church lived in the constant expectation of this event. They faced persecution, imprisonment, and death with the cry of “Maranatha” upon their lips. That single Aramaic word, preserved for us in First Corinthians chapter sixteen, verse twenty-two, carries the heartbeat of New Testament Christianity: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.   “Maranatha” is not a curse. It is a prayer. It is a declaration. It means “Our Lord, come!” or more literally, “The Lord is coming!”    The persecuted believers of the first century did not merely believe in the return of Christ as a distant doctrine. They cried out for it as the solution to every trial. They lived every day with the expectation that before the sun set, the trumpet might sound and the Lord might appear. That same expectant cry has been the distinguishing mark of every faithful generation since. The futuristic present of John 14:3 fueled their hope. Jesus is not merely going to come.    He is coming. The present tense makes the future certain and the certain future near. Additional passages of Scripture reinforce this truth with unyielding clarity. The apostle Paul describes the Rapture as the believer's “blessed hope” in Titus chapter two, verse thirteen: Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. It is not the appearing of wrath. It is the appearing of the great God and our Savior. It is blessed because it delivers the church from the hour of trial that is coming upon the whole world.    It is glorious because it reveals Christ in His full majesty to those who love Him.   The apostle also writes in Philippians chapter three, verses twenty and twenty-one: For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.   The word “conversation” means citizenship.    The believer's true home is in heaven, and from that heavenly realm the Savior is expected at any moment. The transformation described here is the same as that in First Corinthians fifteen. The vile body—literally the body of humiliation—will be fashioned like unto His glorious body.  The power that will accomplish this is the same power that will one day subdue all things under His feet. Nothing is too hard for the One who spoke the universe into existence.   The doctrine of the Rapture is further confirmed in the closing words of the New Testament.    In Revelation chapter twenty-two, verse twenty, the ascended Lord Himself declares:   He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. And the response of the apostle is immediate and fervent: Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.   Once again the language of certainty and imminence rings out. “Surely I come quickly.”    The same Lord who used the futuristic present in the Upper Room now seals the entire canon of Scripture with the promise of His soon return.   This constellation of biblical texts forms an unbreakable chain of truth. The futuristic present of John 14:3 is the grammatical foundation.    The detailed revelation of First Thessalonians four is the doctrinal exposition. The mystery of First Corinthians fifteen is the physiological description. The cry of Maranatha is the devotional response. The blessed hope of Titus two is the purifying motivation. The citizenship of Philippians three is the practical orientation. And the final prayer of Revelation twenty-two is the expectant climax.   Taken together, these passages challenge every believer to live in the white-hot expectancy of the Lord's return. The Rapture is not a doctrine to be debated in academic halls while life drifts on in complacency. It is a command to holiness.  The apostle John makes this explicit in First John chapter three, verses two and three: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.   The hope of seeing Christ and being made like Him is not an abstract idea. It is a sanctifying force. The one who truly believes that Jesus may come at any moment will not toy with sin. He will not waste his days on the trivial and the temporal. He will purify his life with the same purity that characterizes the Lord Himself.    Expectancy produces urgency. It produces separation from the world. It produces devotion to the Word. It produces zeal for the gospel. It produces love for the brethren.  It produces a life lived with eyes fixed on the eastern sky.   The early church understood this. They did not build elaborate systems of prophecy to delay the return of Christ. They did not resign themselves to the idea that the Rapture was for some future generation. They lived as though today could be the day. That same spirit must characterize every generation of believers until the trumpet sounds.    The futuristic present tense in John 14:3 is not a curious footnote for Greek students.  It is a divine declaration that resounds through the corridors of time: “I am coming.” The Lord is coming. Maranatha.    The Bridegroom is on the way.   The Rapture will be a moment of indescribable glory. In one atom of time the graves of the righteous dead will burst open. Bodies long decayed will be reconstituted in splendor. The living saints will feel the sudden surge of immortal power coursing through their veins. Then, together, they will be caught up. The clouds will become their chariot. The air will become the meeting place.  The Lord Himself will receive them. No more sorrow. No more pain. No more death.    Only the eternal embrace of the One who loved them and gave Himself for them. The place prepared in the Father's house will at last be occupied by the redeemed of all ages.    The marriage supper of the Lamb will begin. The church will be presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.   Until that day, the Scriptures call every follower of Christ to live in the light of this imminence. The doctrine of the Rapture is not an escape clause for the lazy. It is a summons to vigilance. It is a call to watchfulness.    It is a mandate to occupy until He comes.    The believer who has fixed his hope on the appearing of Christ will order his life accordingly. He will speak the truth in love. He will labor while it is day. He will warn the wicked. He will strengthen the weak. He will lift up the hands that hang down. He will keep his garments unspotted from the world.  He will cry out with the saints of old, “Maranatha—Our Lord, come!”   The futuristic present tense of John 14:3 still echoes across the centuries. Jesus is not planning to come. He is coming.    The grammar itself testifies to the certainty. The supporting texts confirm the details. The early church embodied the expectancy. And the Holy Spirit today stirs the hearts of all who will listen with the same urgent cry: the Lord is coming. Maranatha. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.  The promise stands. The place is prepared. The trumpet is ready. The Bridegroom is at the door.   Let this truth sink deep into the soul. Let it shape every decision. Let it fuel every act of obedience. Let it purify every motive. The Lord Himself shall descend. The dead in Christ shall rise.    The living shall be changed. The redeemed shall be caught up. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is the Rapture. This is the blessed hope.    This is the promise of John 14:1-3, sealed by the futuristic present tense and proclaimed by the infallible Word of God.    Maranatha. Our Lord is coming. Amen.

A @Christadelphians Video: *Ai Summary* [Inspiring] This thought-provoking and insightful exposition reveals why so many Bible translations exist, focusing on “challenging words” – rare terms that puzzled scholars for centuries. We explore how discoveries like the Rosetta Stone, Ugaritic, and the Oxyrhynchus Papyri have revolutionised our understanding of Hebrew and Greek. This wonderful, revealing journey shows that translation is a continuous process, not a one-off event. We learn to approach Scripture with humility, using multiple translations to benefit from each one's strengths. Outstanding content for anyone serious about God's Word. *Chapters* 00:00 – Introduction: why challenging words matter 00:42 – Hapax legomena and the need for constant revision 01:52 – Changes & discoveries: learning from ancient languages 02:25 – Akkadian: the language of Abraham and Nimrod's kingdom 05:01 – Rosetta Stone: unlocking hieroglyphics 07:16 – Ugaritic: the closest literary cousin to Hebrew 09:35 – New Testament Greek: from “Holy Spirit language” to everyday Koine 10:32 – Herculaneum papyri and the search for ordinary letters 12:02 – Oxyrhynchus Papyri: a treasure trove of receipts, letters, and everyday Greek 14:44 – Timeline: how translations (KJV, RV, RSV, NIV, ESV, NASB) relate to discoveries 16:00 – Example 1: “nuts and almonds” becomes “pistachio nuts” (Genesis 43:11) 21:04 – Example 2: “Tartan” – from a name to the title “field marshal” (2 Kings 18:17) 23:39 – Why Strong's is outdated, and modern lexicons (BDB, HALOT, BDAG) 25:56 – Conclusion: humility, using multiple translations, and always learning *Bible Verse Category*

A @Christadelphians Video: **Ai Summary** [Inspiring] We, as Christadelphians, found this fourth instalment in the ‘So many versions of the Bible...Why?' series absolutely outstanding and wonderfully revealing. Jason Hensley takes us on an insightful journey into the world of *hapax legomena* – words that appear only once in Scripture. This thought-provoking exposition explains why translation must constantly be revised, how our growing knowledge of ancient languages (like Ugaritic and Koine Greek) unlocks meaning, and why humility is essential when handling God's Word. We explore the fascinating contrast between the simple vocabulary of John the fisherman and the technical terms of Luke the physician. The video also highlights the honest approach of the King James translators, who admitted uncertainty rather than dogmatising. If you've ever wondered why Bibles differ, this is a must-watch.**Chapters** 00:00 – Introduction 01:10 – Challenging words & translation philosophy 03:46 – What is *hapax legomena*? (Definition) 06:00 – Frequency in the New Testament (1,672 times!) 08:02 – Author backgrounds: John vs. Luke vs. Paul 10:30 – The translator's dilemma: no other passages to compare 12:42 – Using the Septuagint and extra-biblical sources 14:38 – BDAG lexicon & early Christian literature 15:29 – King James Version preface: humility and margins 17:14 – Cognate languages: Ugaritic, Akkadian, Arabic, Coptic 18:46 – Conclusion: why ongoing discovery matters **Bible Verse Category**

What happens to your child's faith when they leave home for college? On this episode of Refining Rhetoric, host Robert Bortins sits down with Dr. Finny Kuruvilla — Harvard MD, MIT engineer, homeschool dad of nine, and founder of Sattler College — to discuss the crisis in Christian higher education and why he built a tuition-free, classical Christian college in downtown Boston. From the iron law of discipleship to Greek and Hebrew in the original languages, this conversation is essential listening for any homeschool family thinking about what comes after graduation. Dr. Finny Kuruvilla grew up in Southern California in the public school system — and what he saw there shaped everything that came after. Two things stayed with him: the exposure to harmful content and ideas during those formative years, and the creeping shift from caring what his parents thought to caring what his peers thought. When he and his wife Laura started having children, they were determined to reverse that dynamic. Today they homeschool nine children in Boston, from college age down to nine months old. The conversation opens with Dr. Kuruvilla's counter-cultural view of children as assets rather than liabilities — a biblical recovery of the idea that children are a heritage from the Lord, not a threat to the rainforest. His older kids run a snow shoveling and lawn raking business. The family's goal is human flourishing, not the accumulation of experiences that require both parents to work full time. From there, Robert draws him into the crisis he observed from the inside: seven years as a resident advisor at Harvard, watching bright young Christians have their faith "crash and burn" under the weight of an environment where 99% of faculty would not identify as born-again. The official statistic bears this out — 70% of church-attending students stop attending by the time they finish college. Dr. Kuruvilla calls it the iron law of discipleship: "Everyone, when fully trained, will be like his teacher" (Luke 6). Whether parents intend it or not, the law operates. Sattler College was built as a direct response to the three Cs. On cost: no tuition, with a room-and-board rate of around $9,000 per year in downtown Boston. On discipleship: the learn-do-teach model from Ezra 7, weekly same-gender journey groups for confession and mutual accountability, monthly mentorship meetings, and a campus culture built around the question "how did I share my faith with an unbeliever this week?" On curriculum: Greek and Hebrew required of every student, taught communicatively so that 80% of class time is spent actually in the target language. The freshman class travels to Greece at the end of the year to use their Koine Greek on location in Athens, Corinth, Thessalonica, and Philippi. The results are striking. Sattler is currently ranked number one in the country for MCAT scores — above Harvard and Stanford — and biology students are regularly publishing in peer-reviewed journals while working in Harvard Medical School labs. What You'll Learn •    Why Dr. Kuruvilla — after graduating from Caltech, MIT, and Harvard — chose to homeschool all nine of his children •    The three Cs that define what's broken in higher education: core curriculum, Christian discipleship, and cost •    What the "iron law of discipleship" is and why it should terrify every parent sending a child to a secular university •    Why 70% of church-attending students stop attending church by the time they graduate college •    How Sattler College addresses all three of those failures — including charging zero tuition •    Why Sattler is the only college in America that requires all students to learn Greek and Hebrew •    How Sattler students ended up outscoring Harvard and Stanford on the MCAT •    What the "learn, do, teach" model from Ezra 7 looks like in practice — and why spiritual obesity is as real as physical obesity •    How mission drift destroyed Harvard — and the specific bylaws and "poison pill" structures Sattler uses to prevent the same fate •    Why Christian investors are unknowingly funding abortion, pornography, and gambling through their 401(k)s •    What the Tower of Babel story in Genesis reveals about the power of organized Christians Resources Mentioned •    Sattler College: https://sattler.edu/ •    Eventide Funds (faith-based investing): https://www.eventideinvestments.com/ •    King Jesus Claims His Church by Dr. Finny Kuruvilla — available wherever books are sold This episode of Refining Rhetoric is sponsored by: Classical Conversations' new 2026 Product Line This April, Classical Conversations is launching an exciting portfolio of new products designed to strengthen math fluency, develop critical reasoning skills, and equip families with practical tools for classical, Christian homeschooling. From flashcard resources and reasoning curriculum to hands-on manipulatives and a foundational parent resource, these releases deepen the classical learning journey for families at every level. Visit ClassicalConversations.com/WhatsNew/ to explore the entire April 2026 product collection and start strengthening your family's classical, Christian education today. Don't miss the special CC Bookstore sale from April 7 - 28!

A @Christadelphians Video: [Inspiring] We continue our thought-provoking series on Bible translations with an outstanding and wonderfully insightful exposition. In this session, we tackle the delicate subject of translator bias—not as a conspiracy, but as a reality that requires careful, gracious handling. We explore Granville Sharp's famous Greek rule, revealing how what sometimes looks like doctrinal insertion is often simply more accurate grammar. This is a wonderful opportunity to grow in discernment and trust in the integrity of Scripture.**Chapters** 00:00 – Introduction: Picking up the discussion on bias 00:30 – The reality of translator bias vs. textual accuracy 01:39 – Are translators trying to deceive? A call for fairness 02:52 – Why bias appears: grammar, not always an agenda 03:54 – The danger of accusing bias without knowing the languages 04:32 – Granville Sharp's rule: what it is and why it matters 06:16 – Breaking down the rule: “kai,” nouns, and the Greek article 08:17 – Matthew 12:22: How translation choices clarify meaning 10:33 – New King James vs. King James: applying the rule 11:38 – 2 Corinthians 1:3: “God and Father” as one person 12:57 – Titus 2:13 & 2 Peter 1:1: Jesus called “God” 14:34 – Why this shouldn't unsettle us (God manifestation explained) 17:26 – Conclusion: The solution—read multiple translations**Bible Verse Category**

In today's episode, Claire is joined by Bruce Chilton to discuss his book Aramaic Jesus with Baylor University Press. Bruce Chilton's Aramaic Jesus is a groundbreaking study in pursuit of this "Aramaic Jesus," a pursuit that requires awareness of the kind of Aramaic in play. In the past, sorting out dialects and types of Aramaic relied on sources composed well after the time of the New Testament; this work factors in analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls and related materials to access forms of Aramaic current during the first century CE. Since the depiction of Jesus in the Gospels involves various intersections with Aramaic, tracing the impact of Aramaic in the depiction of Jesus within the New Testament entails several investigative categories: specific cases in which Aramaic is identifiably transliterated within the Greek Gospels; analysis that accounts for the cultural settings of Aramaic through the technique of retroversion (involving translation back into Aramaic); and assessment of noticeable overlaps between the New Testament and contemporaneous Aramaic literature, where thematic emphases emerge that relate Jesus' movement to Second Temple Judaism.The writings we call the Gospels involved transitions from the au/orality of Jesus and his movement to reliance upon writing, and from their language(s) to written Koine Greek. Those shifts involved an increasing resort to narrative and literary conventions. The extent to which Aramaic is a factor within this process is uncharted, and this volume clarifies the issues that are in play. Chilton's analysis illuminates the Aramaic Jesus and the people and processes that conveyed his memory. Bruce Chilton is Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson and priest at the Free Church of St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown, New York. He is the author of many scholarly articles and books.

Dr. T. Michael W. Halcomb sits down with longtime friend Aaron Shafovaloff—coder, Greek nerd, and Utah street evangelist—to explore what it actually looks like to talk with Mormons in real-world settings. Moving beyond stereotypes and megaphones, this conversation focuses on respectful, conversational evangelism and why theology, language, and definitions truly matter.Drawing from years of street-level engagement with Latter-day Saints, Aaron shares “seed-scattering” stories and addresses key questions like: Are Mormons Christians? Why do shared words often hide deep theological differences? Where do Christianity and LDS theology truly part ways? They also discuss why some evangelicals are increasingly embracing Mormonism as “just another denomination,” what's at stake in that move, and how historic Christian boundaries bring clarity.Along the way, they touch on Koine Greek, AI tools, and how new technologies may reshape biblical language learning in the church.Guest / Links mentioned:- Utah Christian Research Center: https://utahchristianresearchcenter.com/- Mormonism Research Ministry: https://mrm.org/- Utah Lighthouse Ministry: https://www.facebook.com/utlm.org/#Evangelism #StreetEvangelism #Mormonism #LDS #Utah #Apologetics #Christianity #Gospel #KoineGreek #BiblicalLanguages #GreekNerd #Theology #Missions #Evangelist #Jesus #Christ #Doctrine #Podcast #ProveText #Interview #Apologetics***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

Given the recent craze on social media among wild-eyed Evangelicals, Judeo-Christians and even some Catholics replacing the name of Jesus with 'Yeshua,' we decided to find out if there's a basis for their claims.Episode hosted by Presbyter Darren Kelama and produced in association with the Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies (ISSN: 3068-8469).Ἰησοῦς = JesusPronunciation: Approximately "ee-AY-soos" or "yay-SOOS," with the emphasis typically on the second syllable ("SOOS").Koine Greek alphabet:https://greekforall.com/learn-biblical-greek-grammar/biblical-greek-alphabet/Marcionite Church Inscription:Συναγωγή Μαρκιωνιστῶν κώμης Λεβάβων τοῦ κυρίου καὶσωτῆος Ἰησοῦ Χρηστοῦ, προνοίᾳ Παύλου πρεσβυτέρου, τοῦλχ' ἔτους ("Meeting house of the Marcionites of the village of Lebaba of the Lord and Savior Jesus the Good, under the oversight of Paul the elder.")Marcionite inscription episode:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L8TCspXmusOther Christian inscriptions:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_MT6xS2bBwThe Very First Bible (free ebook):https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/Presbyter Monnet (French Pontiate):https://www.youtube.com/@EgliseMarcioniteMarcionite Church:https://www.marcionitechurch.org/Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies:https://journal.pre-nicene.org/

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Corinthians 6 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more!***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Corinthians 5 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more!***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Corinthians 4 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more!***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Corinthians 3 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more!***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

Title: Languaging in Hampton RoadsEpisode 14: Voices of Faith in Hampton RoadsHosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue SalaskyDate: March 5, 2025Length: 48:50Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx) of each monthIn this episode we interview several pastors, all first-generation immigrants, who minister to their flocks in the native language of their country of origin.The interviews are with Pastor Echo Lin from the Shanghai region of mainland China, who leads services in Mandarin at the more than 100-year-old independent First Chinese Baptist Church in Virginia Beach; Father Joseph Nguyen who ministers to two Catholic Vietnamese congregations, Our Lady of LaVang Catholic Church in Norfolk, and Our Lady of Vietnam Catholic Church in Hampton ; and with Luke Do, Senior Pastor of Peninsula Korean Baptist Church in Newport News.(We also talked to Pastor Trung Phan, leader of Hope Vietnamese Church in Annandale, Va. Time and geographical constraints meant we weren't able to include his interview; we will run it as bonus material at a future date.)From our interviews, we learned about the changing role of the church in each community, the importance of language for identity, the generational rifts as assimilation occurs -- and what the future of ethnic-centered churches might be as globalization and technology reduce differences.We did not address the use of traditional liturgical languages, such as Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Koine Greek, all of which are represented in Hampton Roads. Nor did we cover the multiple Spanish-speaking churches, by far the largest segment of non-English services in the region. Instead, we focused primarily on Asian-led churches that minister to their communities through the use of the vernacular. In talking to ministers at Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese churches we learned not only about immigration patterns in the region, but also the ealier history of colonization and missionary activity. We learned in many cases that faith was secondary to a sense of community and cultural belonging.Our interest in the topic was sparked by a sign for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Mehane Hiwot Abune Gebre Menfes Kidus, in the Park Place neighborhood of Norfolk . We learned that the Norfolk church, started in 2013, is part of one of the most ancient branches of Christianity, part of the Coptic tradition dating back to 300 AD. Priest Teshome Yohannes Feleke presides over a congregation of 200 drawn from throughout Hampton Roads. Services are in a combination of Ge'ez, the ancient liturgical language, and Amharic, Ethiopia's everyday language that evolved from it. (Plug in the church's name to find beautiful chanting on YouTube.) The church is celebrating its renovation with a grand re-opening on March 14/15.We also discovered Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Norge, which once held services in Norwegian. Today the language is no longer used, but the church is the proud possessor of a Norwegian Bible donated by Norway's royal family in 1939. We also learned that Norge is actually the name for Norway in Norwegian, a tribute to its original Scandinavian settlers at the turn of the 20th century!As you can gather, it's a very rich topic and we only scratched the surface of the Babel of languages used in worship in our Hampton Roads region.Please send your questions and feedback to languagingHR@gmail.com

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Corinthians 2 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more!***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Corinthians 1 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more!***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Peter 3 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

English plurals of “mass nouns” (uncountable nouns, such as milk, water) indicate kinds (e.g., cow or goat milks) or multiple instances (e.g., “grab three waters”), but Greek has a third option for the same plurals: an “abundance inference.” Realizing this can sharpen our understanding of certain passages. Travis Wright (PhD, University of Cambridge) is a scholar based in Raleigh, NC. His research focuses on the semantics/pragmatics interface in biblical interpretation and translation. He is one of the authors at Koine-Greek.com. Check out related programs at Wheaton College: B.A. in Classical Languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew): https://bit.ly/3CfoGRq   M.A. in Biblical Exegesis: https://bit.ly/4hm5NuK 

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Peter 2 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Peter 1 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! https://youtu.be/NbQGEHBxVEU ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

Episode 188 On this episode of the Removing Barriers Podcast, we sit down in the studio with Mike P. from episode 50 to discuss Greek! The New Testament was in Greek, so it stands to reason that studying Greek guarantees a deeper and more thorough understanding of what the Bible says. Make no mistake, the Bible can be understood in the English it has been translated into, but studying Greek will deepen our understanding of the Bible and its profound importance and benefit cannot be overstated. Mike has been (and is still on) a personal journey in learning Greek and discovering how it unlocks a more solid grasp of God's word. He shares the meaning of the differences between Classical and Koine Greek, how this can enrich our comprehension of the Scriptures, and how it can help us bless and encourage others to embark on their own journey to more fully engage with this fundamental text. Don't let the prospect of learning a little Greek frighten you--you will be amazed discovering just how much the scriptures will open up. Listen to the Removing Barriers Podcast here: Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cutt.ly/Ega8YeI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Apple Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cutt.ly/Vga2SVd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Edifi: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cutt.ly/Meec7nsv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cutt.ly/mga8A77⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podnews: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podnews.net/podcast/i4jxo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See all our platforms: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://removingbarriers.net⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Contact us: Leave us a voice message: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://anchor.fm/removingbarriers/message⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://removingbarriers.net/contact⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Financially support the show: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://removingbarriers.net/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Affiliates: Book Shop: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/removingbarriers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Answers in Genesis Bookstore: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shrsl.com/2tu8i⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Comp and Save: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shrsl.com/2tu8i⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ BulbHead: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shrsl.com/4ft37⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Share a Sale: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shrsl.com/2jz4f⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ See all our affiliates: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://removingbarriers.net/affiliates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Timothy 4 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

What if everything you own isn't really yours? It's a biblical truth that changes everything once you grasp it. The belief that God owns it all has profound implications for how we manage our resources—and our lives. Let's explore what it means to be a faithful steward of everything God has entrusted to us.The Foundation of Biblical Money ManagementThe cornerstone of biblical money management is the belief that God owns everything. Psalm 24:1 states this clearly:“The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.”Paul builds on this truth in 1 Corinthians 4:7, reminding us that all we have is a gift from God:“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”Acknowledging this truth is one thing; living it out is another. It requires a shift in how we view money and possessions. God isn't a consultant or silent partner in our financial decisions—He's the owner. As His stewards, we're entrusted to manage His resources for His purposes.What Does It Mean to Be a Steward?The Koine Greek word for steward, oikonomos, means “household manager.” Like a household manager oversees someone else's property, we manage God's resources. We own nothing but are responsible for everything under our care, including our finances, time, talents, and relationships.Even our ability to earn a living is a gift to be managed wisely. Deuteronomy 8:18 reminds us:"You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth."Stewardship ResponsibilitiesAs stewards, we manage God's resources according to His will, not our own. This means making decisions that align with His purposes. Let's break down our responsibilities as stewards.1. Accountability to GodWe are accountable to God for how we manage His resources. Romans 14:12 says:“So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”This includes using our resources to advance God's Kingdom, care for others, and reflect His character. Similarly, 2 Corinthians 5:10 reminds us:"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil."2. Living with an Eternal PerspectiveInstead of focusing on temporal wealth, stewards invest in eternal treasures. Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:19-21:"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."3. Faithfulness in Small ThingsFaithful stewards handle even the smallest responsibilities with care. Jesus emphasizes this in Luke 16:10:“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.”4. Generosity and Open HandsWhen we acknowledge God as the owner of all we have, it becomes easier to hold our possessions loosely. Faithful stewards give generously, reflecting God's generosity and trusting Him to provide for their needs.5. Humility in SuccessGood stewards recognize that all they have comes from God. Jesus warns against pride in the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), where a man takes credit for his wealth without acknowledging God's provision. Faithful stewards give God the credit for their success.Stewardship Transforms Our LivesLiving as faithful stewards transforms how we approach our finances—and our lives. It brings greater purpose, responsibility, and joy. Most importantly, it reflects our commitment to Christ and our trust in Him for all things.Our ultimate goal is to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).By embracing the truth that everything belongs to God, we honor Him as the owner and find freedom in managing His resources for His glory. Let this perspective guide your financial journey and every decision you make.FaithFi's New Publication: Faithful Steward Starting this month, FaithFi is launching a new quarterly publication, Faithful Steward. This resource invites you to join us on a journey of faithful stewardship, aligning your faith and finances to glorify God and bless others.To start receiving Faithful Steward every quarter, become a FaithFi partner by giving $35 or more per month or $400 or more annually. Visit FaithFi.com/give to partner with us and receive this inspiring publication delivered right to your mailbox.On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:Am I responsible financially for my 78-year-old aunt's condo? She needs major renovations, like a kitchen renovation, but she doesn't want to refinance to pay for it. I will be the beneficiary of the condo once she passes away through a Lady Bird Deed. Some family members are telling me I should pay for the renovations, but I'm unsure if I'm responsible.My father-in-law passed away about a month ago, and I'm helping my mother-in-law navigate everything. They had about $11,000 in credit card debt. The credit card companies said they could stop the interest, but she still has to pay the remaining balance. She's wondering if she should do that or try to consolidate the debt into one loan instead.I'm in terrible debt with credit card interest rates between 19-22%. I recently had to pay for my daughter's medical expenses, and the debt has multiplied. I tried a debt consolidation company, but they told me to stop paying my cards and go into default. That felt dishonest, so I stopped. I just want to do the right thing and get this debt under control. I need help.As my husband and I approach retirement, how much do we share about our financial situation with our almost 30-year-old children? I'm concerned that too much or too little information could impact their sense of responsibility and obligation. I'm trying to find the right balance and timing for communicating this to them.Resources Mentioned:Faithful Steward: FaithFi's New Quarterly PublicationSplitting Heirs: Giving Your Money and Things to Your Children Without Ruining Their Lives by Ron Blue with Jeremy WhiteChristian Credit CounselorsLook At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and AnxietyRich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich FoolFind a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA) or Certified Christian Financial Counselor (CertCFC)FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on the Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. Visit our website at FaithFi.com where you can join the FaithFi Community and give as we expand our outreach.

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Timothy 3 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Timothy 2 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads 2 Timothy 1 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads James 5 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads James 4 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads James 3 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about and reads James 2 in Koine Greek. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse talks about Surviving Language learning Burnout and how to avoid it. Tune in to learn more! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Jesse Orloff helps us take a closer look at Koine Greek and grow in our love of and appreciation for the language. This is stuff you don't want to miss! Join us for this episode where Jesse reads and studies James 1! Tune in. ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Noonan shares tips on language learning and "The Phonological Loop & Reading Fluency" in this SLA section of the podcast. Then Jesse Orloff studies 1 Peter 5 in Koine Greek. This is stuff you don't want to miss! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a topic that was highly requested by our faithful podcast listeners - why are there so many translations of the Bible out there? Some common follow-up questions are: Do all of these translations mean that we've deviated from the original texts? Is there one translation that is better than all the others? Episode Links The truth is that unless you are reading the Old Testament Scriptures in Hebrew, and the New Testament Scriptures in Koine Greek, any Bible that you read is a translation of the original text. And this is true not only for the Bible, but also for countless historical writings that have been translated into modern languages. Dr. White mentioned two books during today's conversation that would be extremely helpful to deepen your understanding of the various translations of the Bible. The first is The Bible: A Global History written by Bruce Gordon, which you can find HERE. The second is How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth written by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, which you can find HERE. Both include very helpful information on the various translations of the Bible. Not all translations are created equal, however. There are some that exist without a reputable team of scholars behind them, and others that are produced to undermine other translations - usually created by cult forms of religion. A good example of this is the “New World Translation” produced by Jehovah's Witnesses. For more on this, we'd encourage you to listen to the Church & Culture Podcast episode CCP18: On Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. Finally, we'd encourage you to explore a series given by Dr. White at Mecklenburg Community Church titled “How to Bible.” The installments of this series walk you through: How to Get Oriented, How to Read and Interpret It, How to Apply It and How to Believe It. You can find it on Church & Culture HERE. For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Noonan shares tips on language learning and "Human Memory & Reading Fluency" in this SLA section of the podcast. Then Jesse Orloff studies 1 Peter 4 in Koine Greek. This is stuff you don't want to miss! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Noonan shares tips on language learning and "Exegesis and Reading Fluency" in this SLA section of the podcast. Then Jesse Orloff studies 1 Peter 3 in Koine Greek. This is stuff you don't want to miss! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Noonan shares tips on language learning by "Introducing Reading Fluency" in this SLA section of the podcast. Then Jesse Orloff studies 1 Peter 2 in Koine Greek. This is stuff you don't want to miss! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Noonan shares her 3 favorite SLA insights and tips on language learning. Then Jesse Orloff studies 1 Peter 1 in Koine Greek. This is stuff you don't want to miss! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Fredrick J. Long (@greekmatterswithfredlong) examines 1 Corinthians 14:20 using the Constituent Marking Method. He will follow a Conversational Koine segment with Jesse Orloff and Dr. T. Michael W. Halcomb. Today they will discuss “Jonah 3:1” in Koine Greek. Tune in! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Noonan shares SLA insights and tips on language learning while also "Reviewing Output". Then Jesse Orloff studies 2 Thessaalonians 3 in Koine Greek. This is stuff you don't want to miss! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. T. Michael W. Halcomb ( @tmichaelwhalcomb ) reads Revelation 12:10-18 and talks about the Koine Greek root υγ-. Then, stay tuned in for the following segment of The Bible in Context where they talk about "the Fall and Storm of Genesis 3". ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Fredrick J. Long (@greekmatterswithfredlong) examines 1 Corinthians 14:19 using the Constituent Marking Method. He will follow a Conversational Koine segment with Jesse Orloff and Dr. T. Michael W. Halcomb. Today they will discuss “Jonah 2:11” in Koine Greek. Tune in! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Noonan shares SLA insights, tips on language learning, and "Structured Output" while Jesse Orloff studies 2 Thessaalonians 2 in Koine Greek. This is stuff you don't want to miss! ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

In this episode, Dr. T. Michael W. Halcomb ( @tmichaelwhalcomb ) reads Revelation 12:1-9 and talks about the Koine Greek root τελ-. Then, stay tuned in for the following segment of The Bible in Context where they talk about the "Introduction of John". ***GlossaHouse resources are available at our website! - https://glossahouse.com/ ✏️ ***Sign up for classes with GlossaHouse U - https://glossahouse.com/pages/classes

I interview Dr. Tom Eckman, Professor of New Testament Greek, on some basic understanding of the Koine Greek language. He discusses the unfortunate fact that many people (myself in the past) inadvertently bring a Western grammatical mindset to the Greek syntax and explains how that is detrimental to proper exegesis. He also talks about how to properly understand the Participles, verb tenses, Aspect, and much more!Commentary on James, by Dr. Tom Eckman:https://a.co/d/eJDjPBKYouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@graceguy9064/videos----------LOTUS: A Free Grace Response to TULIP:https://a.co/d/iziuXPxOther Books by C4C Apologetics:Investigating Lordship Salvation:https://a.co/d/3ckw4xUA Biblical Sketch: Free Grace Theologyhttps://a.co/d/iPmlf0OC4C Apologetics Website:www.c4capologetics.comFinancially Support C4C Apologetics Ministry:https://odbaptist.com/give----------My Church's Information:Open Door Baptist ChurchPrattville, AL 36066Website:https://odbaptist.com/Sermons/Teachings:https://odbaptist.com/podcasts/sermons-teachingsRumble:https://rumble.com/user/ODBaptistYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@odbaptist8313Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064738054591#LOTUS #FreeGrace #FreeGraceTheology #TULIP #Calvinism

Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (Koinē Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Θεά Φιλοπάτωρ[note 5] lit. Cleopatra "father-loving goddess";[note 6] 70/69 BC – 10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.[note 7] A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great.[note 8] After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the last Hellenistic-period state in the Mediterranean and of the age that had lasted since the reign of Alexander (336–323 BC).[note 9] Her first language was Koine Greek and she is the only known Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language.[note 10]

In this episode, we welcome Trevor Thompson to the show. He is a Senior Acquisitions Editor at Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. He has taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School (as lecturer of Koine Greek), at Abilene Christian University, and now at Calvin University. He is the co-translator of Galen's On the Avoidance of Grief and author of over seventy encyclopedia articles. He is a co-editor of two volumes: Ephesos as a Religious Center Under the Principate and Christian Body, Christian Self: Concepts of Early Christian Personhood. His publisher, Eerdmans, is responsible for Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony by Richard Bauckham and Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels by Craig Keener. In this interview, we discuss why Bauckham's book is essential to understanding the depictions of Jesus' life in the Gospels and the first-century church, how someone can be a New Testament scholar but never come to the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ, how the doctrines of infallibility and inerrancy can cause stumbling blocks for Christians and non-Christians, how oral traditions and history is to be understood differently than written traditions and history, and much more. Let's get into it…  Episode notes and links HERE. Donate to support our mission of equipping men to push back darkness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices