Your Biblical Heroes are Fatally Flawed

I heard it again. I was listening to a speaker the other day and he said something that I’ve heard many, many times: “The Bible is unique because all the heroes of the Bible are so flawed, and the Bible doesn’t hide their flaws.” I’ve probably said it myself, but this time, it got me wondering: what heroes...

The Surprising Reason Chronicles is in the Bible

Why is the book of Chronicles in the Bible? It was written after the book of Kings and covers much of the same material, from the end of Saul’s reign until the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. Chronicles tacks on at the very end that Cyrus the Great of Persia allowed the exiles to return to...

Bethlehem: City of David?

When did Bethlehem become the “city of David”? That title had always been given to Jerusalem. Forty times in the Old Testament Jerusalem is referred to as the city of David, and no other city in the Bible is ever called by that name. Until Luke’s gospel. “Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in...