A Virtual File Cabinet for Our Studies of Christian Origins & Hebraic Faith
Below are the slides from Dr. James Tabor’s Countdown of the top 10 differences between the DSSs and the Masoretic Text that is the basis for most versions of the Bible. All italized text is from my transcript of his videos. His video series is: Opening Comments Included: Re: No. 10 — The Masoretic Text […]
Continue ReadingAll text below is from Claude.ai in Explanatory mode. In the responses everywhere “I” or “me” is speaking that is Claude.ai—not this web guy. Below Prompt 1 are the following prompts and responses. Prompt 1: Did Yohanan ben Zakkai ever live in the Galilee? Site all sources. Let me (Claude.ai) address this historical question carefully. […]
Continue ReadingExtracts below are from the BAS article Who Are the Nephilim? The Mysterious Beings of Genesis 6 by Ellen White, January 30, 2025. The Nephilim, the product of the sons of god mingling with the daughters of Adam, the great biblical giants, “the fallen ones,” the Rephaim, “the dead ones”—these descriptions are all applied to one group of […]
Continue ReadingFrom Chat GPT on 1/28/2025. Prompt: How do critical bible scholars explain how the original 10 commandments were preserved when the tablets were broken? Cite the names of the scholars and where their argument are recorded. Critical biblical scholars have proposed various explanations regarding the preservation and transmission of the original Ten Commandments after Moses […]
Continue ReadingTwo responses from ChatGPT on 1/28/2025. Prompt 1 – Cite the different decalogues in Exodus and Deuteronomy using the ASV. The Decalogues, commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments, are found in two main passages in the Old Testament: Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Here they are as cited in the American Standard Version (ASV): […]
Continue ReadingFrom Elizabeth Hayes, Christine. Introduction to the Bible (The Open Yale Courses Series) (Chapter 9, p. 128). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. Modern source theory assigns the varied bodies of legal material found in the Pentateuch to the main biblical sources as follows: In all cases, it is supposed that the sources drew upon much […]
Continue ReadingFrom Yale Bible Study: Back-to-back bits of wisdom that completely contradict each other: From: Enns, Peter. How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That’s Great News (p. 29). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. Proverbs wasn’t written for twenty-first-century Western churchgoing […]
Continue ReadingWhen God Sleeps By Bernard F. Batto The God of the Bible both rests and sleeps. In this, he resembles other ancient Near Eastern deities. The Hebrew theologians shared a mythic vocabulary with neighboring cultures, but the Hebrew theologians used this vocabulary to elevate their theology to spiritual heights previously unknown. Divine rest following creation is also […]
Continue ReadingLinks in addition to those below this list with extracts. Who Returned First—Ezra or Nehemiah? at BAS by Aaron Demsky, April 1996. Forty-seven years after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 B.C.E. and deported many of the people to exile in Babylon, Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, who had conquered the Babylonians and […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT 1/19/2025. Gog and Magog have been subjects of much scholarly debate and interpretation in biblical studies. Below is a summary of critical scholarly perspectives on these enigmatic figures, drawing from their appearances in the Hebrew Bible and Christian apocalyptic literature: Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38–39 Textual Context: Gog appears as a leader […]
Continue Reading