Bible Commentary Page

This is my commentary on the Bible. No, I will never finish unless someone pays all my bills. Otherwise I will have to spend a lot of my time working. If anyone thinks I am wrong on some point, I welcome your input. If you are convincing, I will change the point in question. After all, my interest is to try to understand God. If it does not convince me, I will add it to a Q&A page under the section it pertains to. That is, of course, if it makes any sense at all.

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Introduction to Bible Study

Christianity

The story of Christianity is a great one - that God came to earth and lived as his creation did, and in doing this showed us how we should live our lives. He suffered greatly for our shortcomings and welcomed us to turn to Him to love Him and be loved by Him. How much better can it get?

Judaism

However, I do not see Jesus in this context. I see Jesus in a more Jewish way, I suppose you could say - that he was a great rabbi whose concern was for the Hebrew people and whose disdain was for the leaders who were not taking care of their spiritual needs. This is why he was annoyed with the Pharisees and Sadducees. His mission was summed up in the story of this woman: Mark 7.24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." 28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29 Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter." 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. It seems to me that Jesus was interested in straightening out his own religion and his own people. Yet it was not uncharacteristic of him to go outside his objective due to his compassion and care for the people. In fact, Paul says, Romans 1:16: 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. So, Jesus's teaching was to go to the Jews, then from them we Gentiles were to learn. Instead of learning their wonderful philosophy, though, many people choose to hate them and blame the Hebrews for every big and little problem that comes along. That said, I will now begin to go through the most wonderful book ever assembled by humans.

Pet Peeve

I have grown weary of those who attack Christianity, the Bible, the Hebrews, priests, etc. To be human, you must understand the viewpoints of others. When I discuss religion, I discuss it while considering the other person's understanding. I do toss out my thoughts for him or her to consider, of course. That is called open-mindedness. There are many who cannot discuss simple things in this manner. Saying particular words angers them. They cannot have an honest conservation. They can neither teach nor learn. Groups in which I have found a higher concentration of these people include feminists and pagans. And, yes, there have also been Christians and Jews, though not nearly to the extent of the previous groups. These people need to learn to see the other person's viewpoint before they fly off the handle and start passing judgment. A person very close to me can actually have an honest, open discussion. She considers herself a pagan yet our beliefs have many similarities. I believe that she is rebelling against the religion of her mother. This is due to some things I won't mention that were unfinished at the time of her mother's departure. Eventually, I believe, she will deal with them all. I also believe that in time she will understand her mother's beliefs and stop rebelling (that's my opinion). She does not hate Christianity but does not identify with it. I think she is judging God as the Bible presents Him according to the hypocrisy of the one church of one denomination of which her mother was a member. Our only real disagreement is over idolatry. Her belief is that it is all right to worship the Creator as well as the creation. To me, this makes no sense. I do not put the creation on the same level as its Creator. Yet we love each other and that will never end over a point of simple disagreement. It is my hope that she will read the Bible with an open mind to consider what it really says. The ultimate decision is hers. I will not push her. I will only discuss things with her and love her.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

This verse defies comprehension by the human mind. That there was a beginning of all things is something we cannot wrap our minds around. We have been created within a universe that has specific rules and all we can do is try to understand them. Thinking beyond time and the universe in which it exists is something for which we are not equipped. We are limited by our thinking which is limited by the rules of the universe. In my opinion, we will never comprehend what is beyond our universe.

The verse states that some supernatural Power created the universe. This Power is called Elohim. This is probably an ancient term which was borrowed by the author to explain this power in terms his ancient people could understand. Elohim is a plural noun. That has caused a lot of confusion but it is not that complicated. This plural noun is always used with a singular verb. Thus we can see that there is only one Power.

It is a tremendous task to understand all that is contained in this verse. The thought that the universe did not exist until a certain point is difficult enough but to complicate things there is the implication that there was something before it. We cannot understand God's reality by comparing it to one He/She/It created.

How would the Creator of the universe be subject to rules He created? Does He experience time or space or happiness or hatred? How could we possibly understand this? There are those who think that all the answers to reality can be found in the universe and what is beyond it. Yet we have not gone beyond it. In reality, we understand just a little more than nothing.

What we should focus on is the wonder of the verse. Something out there caused everything we know and understand to happen. All things that happen in our little world were set in motion by God. For the most part, I believe that God lets us guide our own direction but sometimes steps in to correct us. Why do bad things happen? Because Adam and Eve introduced us to a concept we call sin that leads us astray. Now and then God redirects us when it becomes necessary. It is silly to me to hear people say things such as: Why did God let this happen?

The truth is that we are likely the ones to blame. Everything we do has an effect on the universe. All was well until the first two human creatures did the only thing in the universe they were told not to do. We have had wars, famines, racism, and other destructive things grow and prosper in the world God told us to master. The Golden Rule of all legitimate religions is to put others before ourselves. The avoidance of such good advice is the sin we have all shared in to make our own problems. God did not cause the problems. He made it possible for us to cause them.

We should be grateful every moment that we were given lives to live in God's wonderful creation. Yet we make our lives miserable and blame God for our self-induced misery. We are continually told to ask for guidance in the Bible. Yet, how many people really care, anymore? Our society's new answer to every problem is to blame somebody or something else for our own shortcomings.

I choose to be grateful for my life and to consider every problem a challenge to be overcome with God's help. If it is a problem that is too big for my lifetime, I still have to contribute. This is expected of me on behalf of the humanity of the future. Life is a big thing. It does not revolve around me. I am expected to do what I can do - no matter how little it is. It is not my duty to be recognized or famous. It is my duty to God to care about others.

Every decision and action in my life is my treatment of God. He is the one to Whom I answer. He is the one that gave me life. By giving me my life He obtains the right to judge and treat me any way He wishes. I am not at God's level. Without the gift of my life I would certainly be nothing - literally. The way I treat people is my relationship to God. If I treat others well, it shows that I am truly grateful for my life. If I treat people badly, it shows God that I do not appreciate my free gift nor do I appreciate God Himself.

That is a terrible thought.

Send your comments and questions to ray at bhcblogs dot org (you'll have to post the address correctly yourself with @ and . ).