I bought a nifty book last week called "1,001 More Things You Always Wanted to Know About the Bible."

It brings to light the importance of first knowing what the Bible writers said to their own culture before trying to bring it "up to date" and apply it to ours.

There is an example:

Matthew 8:21-22 mentions a would-be follower of Jesus who said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." Jesus replied, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." This strikes some readers as rather unkind--after all, a dutiful son was making a simple request to bury his father, which Jesus should rave respected, right? But scholars familiar with Middle Eastern culture interpret it differently: most likely the man wasn't saying his father had just died--rather, he was saying to Jesus, "I can't follow You until after my father is dead and buried." Obviously Jesus' message was more urgent than that. His reply to the man might have been His way of saying, "Cut the excuses, you're just trying to dalay your commitment." The scholars say that even today Middle Easterners use "Let me bury my father first" as a polite way of refusing a request.

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You have done many good things for me, Lord, just as you promised. I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge. Psalm 119:65-66 NLT

Makes a lot more sense that way; doesn't it?

Where do we obtain this book?

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Examine me, O LORD, and prove me: try my reins and my heart. Ps.26:2
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in men.Ps.118:8

Interesting example.

Why don't you begin a topic devoted to that and give us lots more including the one you just gave us? Without breaking any copy rules, of course!

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In His Love, Mercy & Grace

Daryl

I got it from a local Smith/Coles type bookstore. It is authored by J. Stephen Lang. Here's another tidbit before I make a topic out of parts of this book:

Beards:

All the great men of the Bible are usually shown in artwork with beards, and with good reason: Jewish men word beards. It was a mark of an adult male, and having one's beard forcibly shaved was a horrible humiliation (see 2 Sam. 10:4-5; Isa. 50:6; Jer. 48:37). The Law of Moses strictly prohibited trimming the beard too closely (see lev. 19:27).

Beards are never mentioned in the New Testament, but we know that Jewish men continued to wear them (as they have through the centuries) and that Roman men did not, looking upon beards as a mark of barbarians.

A few times in Christian history authors have written books, such as the 1860 work Defense of the Beard, stating biblical reasons why beards should be worn.

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You have done many good things for me, Lord, just as you promised. I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge. Psalm 119:65-66 NLT

Pastor I am looking foward to this topic..

In The Blessed Hope

Avalee

About the beards in the NT: when I was researching dress, I found that the Romans followed the example of the Ceasar. If Ceasar was clean shaven, all good Romans were clean shaven. If Ceasar had a beard, which seldom happened, then the men wore beards. The same was true of hair length. BTW, Hadrian was one Ceasar who wore a beard. Also, in Egyptian art, Semitic people are distinguished because of their beards and clothing. The Egyptians were clean shaven--chins and often heads! Anything in your book about the Egyptians?

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For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
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Linda

I know that even women pharaohs wore fake (ceremonial) beards to demonstrate their authority. I'll look for more information in the book.

One other note from another history book: Romans had a "thing" for blonds. Most Romans had dark hair, but blonds were not terribly uncommon. A book by Michael Bell has accounts of high society women taking hair from German slaves and even crude attempts (and the recounting of the illness that resulted from) at artificially colouring their hair. Emperors Ceasar Augustus and Nero were both blond.

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You have done many good things for me, Lord, just as you promised. I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge. Psalm 119:65-66 NLT

[This message has been edited by Andrew Marttinen (edited June 29, 2001).]

Pastor Andrew Marttinen:

When you start your threads discussing things from this book, could you include some sort of reference in the subject so that we might easily identify these threads?

I would very much like to watch for these threads.

Perhaps something like (1,001) or (1,001 MTYAWTKATB), the latter being composed from the first letter of each word in the book title, although it may appear that you're typing in tongues.

[This message has been edited by DenBorg (edited June 29, 2001).]

OK.

Since there are many Bible curiosities, I'll deal with them on separate threads also. They may not always be from the same book, but I'll indicate it where applicable.

In the meatime, you're all lucky to see a photo of me without a goatee or a moustache. The goatee is a new thing.

Young pastors now have opted for the goatee look rather than the moustache and glasses which were popular in the 80's.

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You have done many good things for me, Lord, just as you promised. I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge. Psalm 119:65-66 NLT

Perhaps better yet, if you think it a good idea, subject titles similiar to the one you've created would work best, especially since you indicate you have more than one book which mentions things like this.

For example:

Curious Bible Facts - Beards
Curious Bible Facts - Noah's Ark

and so on.

Just an idea.