Exploring the Bible

  The Missing Link? Hunting for Dinosaurs in the Text of Scripture Walk into any natural history museum, and you are immediately greeted by the kings of the ancient past: the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Triceratops, the towering Brachiosaurus. Dinosaurs capture our imagination like few other things. They are the monsters under the bed that actually existed. For many believers, however, these fossilized giants present a puzzle. We read the book of Genesis, and we see lions, cattle, and creeping things. We see birds and fish. But where are the dinosaurs? If the Bible claims to be a history of the world, why does it seem to be silent on the most impressive creatures to ever walk the earth? The answer might be simpler than we think: we are looking for the wrong word, but the right description. The first hurdle in finding dinosaurs in the Bible is linguistic. The word "dinosaur" was not coined until 1841 AD , when British anatomist Sir Richard Owen combined the Greek words dein...

The Language of the Lord: Did Jesus Speak Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek? When we watch movies about the life of Jesus, the dialogue is usually in English, but the "feeling" we get is that the original conversations happened in solemn, ancient Hebrew. We picture Jesus speaking the language of Moses, reciting the Psalms in the same tongue in which they were written. While Jesus certainly knew Hebrew, historical evidence and biblical clues suggest that the "soundtrack" of the Gospels was actually quite different. If you could time travel to 30 AD and walk the dusty roads of Galilee with the disciples, the language you would hear filling the air was almost certainly Aramaic . Furthermore, if Jesus sat down to write a contract or negotiate a job, He likely would have switched to Greek . Here is a look at the linguistic landscape of the Messiah’s world. For over a thousand years, Hebrew was the language of Israel. However, the turning point occurred in 586 BC, when th...

  The Darkroom Miracle: How a 19th-Century Photo Changed Everything For centuries, the Shroud of Turin was revered, but it was also a visual disappointment. Pilgrims who traveled to Italy to see the alleged burial cloth of Christ often found themselves squinting at the linen, trying to make out the faint, sepia-colored stains. To the naked eye, the image is blurry, ghostly, and largely indistinguishable. It wasn't until the late 19th century—specifically May 28, 1898—that the Shroud gave up its most shocking secret. And it didn't happen on an altar; it happened in a darkroom. The story centers on Secondo Pia, an Italian lawyer and amateur photographer. In 1898, the House of Savoy decided to exhibit the Shroud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Italian Constitution. As part of the festivities, the King granted permission for the relic to be photographed for the very first time. Pia was given the task, but the conditions were a nightmare. He had to work in the swelt...