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Paul’s Letter With the Most OT Quotations

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Last week, we saw a sudden bump in traffic to our list of New Testament books that quote the Old Testament, thanks to the game show Jeopardy!

On November 16, the clue to the final round was “Paul’s letter to them is the New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotations.” And there was much uproar when the contestant who responded with “Who are the Hebrews” was credited with being correct. So the fact-checkers among the show’s fans have been visiting our site in droves to observe that we’ve actually got Romans at the top of the list.

The biggest online uproar has been over the fact that most contemporary scholars believe Paul didn’t even write Hebrews, despite the King James Bible crediting the book to him. But I think the bigger issue is simply: What counts as a “quotation”? Because Hebrews has more OT references than Romans only if you count allusions (such that you count every reference to Moses, covenant, priest, or sacrifice). But by any measure of clear quotations or explicit citations of an OT text, Romans wins.

The Jeopardy! contestant with the correct answer should have blown out the others but instead lost the game!

Dr. Greg Lanier from Reformed Theological Seminary agrees that this is the more substantive problem with the Jeopardy! clue. His piece at the Gospel Coalition blog explains with much clarity and detail.

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Re-Train Yourself in How to Read

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We just launched our 2023 Bible reading challenge, and Tommy Keene has some good advice to help you along your way. He discusses “The Problem with Reading the Bible Verse by Verse,” and gives many practical suggestions for becoming better readers of the Bible.

Over the years we have trained ourselves to read the Bible in an unnatural way, so we’re going to have to break some bad habits. We are trained to read the Bible verse-by-verse, but in keeping with the “ordinary reading principle” we need to change our habits. We should ordinarily be reading the Bible paragraph-by-paragraph or, even better, book-by-book.

To re-train ourselves, we must discipline ourselves to read and get swept up in the grand literature of the Bible. We must be content not to read commentaries or study notes every time we have a question. We ought to devour the Scripture in gobbles rather than nibbles.

Keene discusses the benefits of reader’s editions and audio Bibles, all of which are encouraged in our reading challenge. Let Keene strengthen your conviction to read God’s word this year as though it was something God gave you to be read (because it was).

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Is There a Place for Christian Prayers of Cursing?

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The Psalms are often described as a hymnbook or prayer book for God’s people. Yet any reader of the Psalms can’t get far into the book without needing to ask a fundamental question: Are these prayers still fitting for God’s people who live after the cross and the teaching of Jesus? C. John Collins states the matter like this:

Many psalms call on God for help as the faithful are threatened with harm from enemies. In a number of places, the form of the requested help is God’s punishment of these enemies. Christians, with the teaching and example of Jesus (e.g., Matt. 5:38–48; Luke 23:34; 1 Pet. 2:19–23; cf. Acts 7:6), wonder what to make of such curses. How can it possibly be right for God’s people to pray in this way?

Collins’s answer is surprisingly thorough for how concise it is. I encourage you to see what he has to say.

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Delighting in the Psalms of Ascent

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Psalms 120 through 134 are known as a collection, entitled the Psalms of Ascent. Jeffrey Stivason briefly explains how they were used in Israel, how the collection is structured, and how it exalts the coming Messiah.

Brothers and sisters, the Psalms of Ascent are a reminder of what we possess in Christ.  So, let us take up these Psalms.  Let us read and remember that Christ built His house, laying Himself as the chief cornerstone.  What is more, each of us are living stones situated one beside another creating a beautiful house temple to His glory. Therefore, let each psalm take us on a pilgrimage to our Christ.  And there let us be glad and rejoice for we are safe in Him who is our God!

“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you” (Ps 128:1-2).

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Is it Legalistic to Apply the Bible?

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Matt Cohen is writing about preaching, but his question applies just as much to leading Bible studies: “Is Sermon Application Legalism?”

Allow me to illustrate the potential error that I am referring to. Consider a pastor preaching from Ephesians 5:25, which reads, “Husbands, love your wives (imperative), as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (indicative).” The preacher elaborates,

“Husbands, God’s word calls you to love and lay down your life for your wife. Our failure to obey this command reveals our desperate need for our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the true and ultimate husband who laid down his life to save, protect, and provide for us, his bride, the church. All honor and glory to Jesus our Lord. Husbands, praise Him, the great husband of the church!”

What is wrong with the pastor’s exegesis of Ephesians 5:25?

Before clicking over to the article, can you identify what would be wrong with the proposed application of the hypothetical preacher? Why is that approach not the solution to the danger of legalism?

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What Our Kids Need to Learn from Revelation

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Jenny Marcelene shared with her kids some of her own insights from studying Revelation. And in this piece she also shares them with us. Revelation is such an important book to be studying when times are tough. Here are four teachings from the book to help our children in the days to come:

  1. We persevere by fixing our eyes on Jesus.
  2. Suffering is normal.
  3. God uses suffering to defeat the Enemy.
  4. Obedience isn’t easy.

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Looking for Biblically Faithful Books for Children?

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Westminster bookstore just launched a new website, called WTS Kids, designed to help parents, caregivers, churches, and schools find great Christian books for their children. You can browse for storybook Bibles, theological introductions, topics, or church history. You can find recommendations based on age. You can also subscribe to their blog to get regular articles about teaching the Bible to children.

They have done a great job curating excellent resources, and their prices are usually better than Amazon’s.

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Westminster links are affiliate links. If you click them, this blog will receive a small commission. Thank you for helping us continue to find and recommend good resources!

Take Care With Idioms

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A crucial presupposition we must make when studying the Bible is that, while it was written for believers in all ages (1 Cor 10:11), it was not written directly to us. We are reading someone else’s mail.

That means that we must be aware of and alert for idioms. Those turns of phrase that have a unique meaning in a particular culture but would make no sense when translated to another language. For example, if I describe my child’s theater performance as having “knocked it out of the park,” people in another time and place might presume something got broken or that the play was performed in an outdoor venue.

With the Bible, this issue works in both directions. Ancient authors used idioms, for which word studies will be no help. (Imagine looking up “knocked” and “park” up in a dictionary.) And at the same time, we cannot read modern day idioms back into the text, even if the words are the same.

For example, Alan Shlemon explains the fact that when Jesus told Lazarus to “Come out” (John 11:43), he was not inviting him to publicly identify as gay. This may be self-evident to some, but such basic principles bear repeating. We must seek to understand the Bible the way the original audience would have understood it. Only then can we draw legitimate applications in our day.

Shlemon’s piece skillfully draws out this principle with respect to some of the ways people read the text today.

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