Dr. Craig Smith walks through some basic tools that anyone can use to understand the Bible. This is live footage captured at the Pure Truth Pastors Conference in Harare, Zimbabwe in May-June of 2013. If you would like the handouts that go along with this training session, download them here: Foundations 1 Part 2 coming…
It is widely known that one of the most important tenets of Jewish faith is the oneness of God. For millennia, faithful descendants of Abraham have affirmed their strict monotheism by starting each day by reciting the Shema (“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one!”; Deu 6:4). Given the centrality…
Q: How did the literalist interpretation of Christianity win out over that of the Gnostics? A: It didn’t. The Gnostic “interpretation” came considerably later than the orthodox Christian teachings about Jesus. In most cases, what we call Gnostic Christian writings were written 100 years (and in some cases 200-500 years) after the orthodox Christian writings…
As the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife”[1] recently demonstrated, interest in the possibility that Jesus was married remains high. The reasons for this are not entirely clear to me, but I suspect several factors are in-play: Modern culture loves a good conspiracy and anything which claims that a powerful organization covered up something about its…
Ok, that sounds like the beginning of a cheesy joke, but the truth is no laughing matter. The recently revealed “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife”, as some media outlets took to calling it, is yet another example of modern skepticism about the reliability of the canonical Gospels. It’s hard to get anyone to pay attention to…
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In 2002, a remarkable find was announced to the world: an ossuary or bone-box with the Aramaic inscription translating to “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” Given that the box itself dates back 2000 years and that it was very unusual to put a brother’s name on a funerary inscription unless the brother was…
While it is true that knowledge is power, it is also often the case that a little bit of knowledge can be a bad thing. This is frequently the case when it comes to referencing the original languages of the Bible. Far too often, those new to the task of exegesis (responsibly drawing intended meaning…
Here’s a question I received recently about a topic of considerable interest to many Christians: Hi Craig! I was hoping you could help me with something I struggling with in the Bible. You’ve been a great help in the past! Matthew 24:34 (and the same passages in Mark and Luke) are what’s puzzling me: 32 “Now learn…
[please note that this article is written to be accessible to the average Christian, but deals with a complex subject that requires, at times, reference to detailed lines of evidence. Please refer to the footnotes for additional explanations and evidence for points made in the main body of the article] Have you ever been following…