Topic
Guides to reading and understanding the Bible: where to start, reading plans, the context of each book and how to memorize verses.
Bible Study
Esther is a Jewish orphan who becomes queen of Persia and risks her life to stop a massacre. Her book is also the only one in the Hebrew Bible that never mentions God.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
Paul wrote a large part of the New Testament and never met Jesus before the crucifixion. Here is his life as Acts and his own letters tell it, and where the famous details come from.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
Noah's ark is the most decorated children's story and the most heavily edited: in the text, the flood kills everyone left outside. What to say at each age, and what not to invent.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
Four different words are translated “hell” in English Bibles, and none of them describes Dante's nine circles. Here is what the biblical text says about both destinations, and where the Christian traditions diverge.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
Fifty-one verses in three movements: the prologue, the testimony of John the Baptist and the first week of disciples. John 1 block by block, in the public-domain World English Bible.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
Mary Magdalene is named in all four Gospels and is the first witness of the resurrection. The Bible never calls her a prostitute — here is where that idea came from.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
David and Goliath is the courage story told most often in Sunday school — and the one that loses the most meaning when it becomes a self-esteem lesson. What 1 Samuel 17 says, and what to say about the ending.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
Thirty-nine verses that move from a courtroom verdict to a groaning creation to a list of things that cannot separate you from God. Romans 8 block by block, in the World English Bible.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
The New Testament gives four lists of the twelve, and they do not match exactly. Here is each name, what the text actually reports, and where the famous martyrdoms come from.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
The order of service, what the water, oil and candle mean, how long it takes and where a guest is meant to stand — for infant baptism, adult immersion and everything between.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
The wise men are never counted, never named and never reach a stable; the ox and the donkey come from tradition, not the Gospels. How to tell Christmas faithfully without spoiling it.
Ruth Callaway ·
Bible Study
The chapter begins with a queen mother lecturing a king about wine and the courts, and ends with an acrostic poem about a woman who buys land. Proverbs 31, all 31 verses, in context.
Ruth Callaway ·