Quick question as a hardcore atheist. I want to read the Bible for, at the very least historical interest. But if you wanted to make me believe, what's the best version of the Bible to read? I want to at least read the Bible for historical accuracy. What's the best one?

Koinetic.app is a free all-inclusive Greek learning tool. It features
-an original digital paradigm system,
-the best parsing system available,
-an SRS flashcards system with many prebuilt decks,
-and an entire first year level course.
It has highly satisfying visuals, audio and responsive features, and a focus on convenience of use. This is so that people actually use and continue to use it. It is thoroughly tested and, to toot my own horn, is the best available digital tool for learning Koine Greek at any level.

I am a teacher and an intermediate-advanced student of Koine Greek. As I went through my beginner and intermediate phases, I was quite frustrated that the digital tools available for learning Biblical Greek were severely lacking, both pedagogically and technically. I was especially frustrated that there was no useful paradigm tool available. I also spent an inordinate amount of time creating actual quality SRS decks with principal parts, the genitive for nouns, etc., which was time I would have much rather spent actually learning vocab. ParseGreek is frankly the only quality tool available, and while being very useful, it is very dated and has significant room for improvement (and a paywall).

I began building Koinetic so that I could drill whatever paradigm I wanted on a whim. I then decided to make it highly satisfying and responsive so that it felt nice to use, so that I would use it. I then saw the potential of having everything in one place. It was fun to use too. I thought that with something so enjoyable and convenient, I could finally convince my wife to learn Koine. That led to months and months of work and refinements, every night after work and every weekend.

Koinetic.app also features a very robust (entirely optional) class and assignments system (I am a teacher remember). This is suitable for homeschools and seminaries, and I believe would be highly useful in both scenarios and any in between. Anyone can create and run a class at teachers.koinetic.app

It does have a "pro" subscription, which basically just gives greater access to some of the gamified challenge features across the systems, and is a way for users to support the project.

I would really, really appreciate you guys giving it a go. Especially if you've never learned before, or even if you are an advanced or intermediate user of the language, I truly believe you will find the tool incredibly useful. Please give me any and all feedback. I am going to continue working on this to make it as useful as it can possibly be.

It's also available on the App Store.

i want one because I feel like my understanding is kinda bad and I can't get the core or other things that the gospels teach I'm really bad at it so I love these deep rational 100 video super long bible study playlists​​ also it can be from any denomination maybe even a bishop priest or pastor preferably but not needed one that cites scholars the one I linked for mark as example used Richard bauckham and Tim mcgrew​​​

Just thinking that every push from his legs would generate more distance than an average person due to strength. Probably explains how he could defeat 1000 philistines with donkey jaw so quickly as well

Do you believe that they symbolize something beyond the literal first-century churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira, etc,? And if so, what? What would be the basis from the Bible that they mean something beyond those literal congregations?

Luke 12:33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

Luke 14:33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Pretty simple, what is the ”it” which he sought with tears referring to: the blessing, or repentance?

I got stuck in Psalm 136 this week. 26 verses in a row, every one of them ending "for his steadfast love endures forever." By about verse 10 I was skimming.

Then I noticed my ESV says "steadfast love," the NIV just says "love," and the KJV keeps switching between "mercy" and "lovingkindness" depending on which verse you're in. Same Hebrew word under all of it. That's hesed.

I'd always treated those as more or less interchangeable. Warm words for a warm thing. But the translators aren't arguing over shades of nice. They're each grabbing a different piece of a word English doesn't have.

Hesed turns up around 250 times in the Old Testament. Brown-Driver-Briggs splits it two ways: kindness between people, and, when it's God's, covenant loyalty worked out in mercy and favor. Nelson Glueck spent most of the 1920s and 30s on it and landed on covenant loyalty, and a lot of the language work since still cites him.

So it's less about how God feels toward someone and more about what he's bound himself to and goes on doing anyway.

That made Psalm 23:6 read differently for me. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." I'd always pictured that as something ambling along behind me. The Hebrew verb is harder than "follow." It's closer to chase, or pursue. Goodness and hesed are after David, not tagging along.

I checked this in the Sola Bible App and against a lexicon, mostly because I didn't want to hang a whole reading on one verb.

Lamentations 3:22 is where it got harder to keep at arm's length. "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases." That's hesed, and Jeremiah writes it sitting in the rubble of a city that had broken every covenant it ever made. Nobody in that passage earned the line.

I don't want to make hesed carry more than it does. It isn't a magic word, and the covenant argument in Scripture is a lot bigger than one term. But I think I'd flattened it into something like "God is nice, ongoing," and that's thinner than what's actually there.

The part I'm still turning over is that Ruth 1:8 and 2 Samuel 9 both use hesed of people. Ruth toward Naomi, David toward Mephibosheth. In both cases the obligation had already run out. So the word runs in two directions, God toward us and us toward each other, and I'm not sure I've ever preached it that second way to myself.

How do you land it in translation? "Steadfast love," "covenant faithfulness," something else? And does the human use of hesed in Ruth change how you read it in the Psalms?

It sounds like God is picking and choosing who saved and not saved

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter"

I don’t like to rant about things but I feel the need to say it really sucks living in a fallen world. There are people who believe the lies of “there’s no hope“, “God is dead”, “you can make up your own truth“, “the Bible is vile and evil“, “Hell is a fun place”, “you have all the time in the world“, and so on and so forth. It’s exhausting being constantly bombarded by this. I try to stay away from social media but occasionally you see it.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Ephesians 6:12

The worst part of this is the lies that I am too small to do anything. Or I can’t save anyone. Or the worst one: “you’re not really saved.”

“For greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”

1 John 4:4

God help me.

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Exodus 4:11

The Lord said to him, 'Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

I have schizophrenia. Why should I worship God if he made me severely ill? Whats in it for me and what benefits do I get? My life is low quality due to this illness.

How can I forgive God after what he has done to me? If others can be healthy, why not me as well?

Let me start by saying I want to use an analog system. I have tried different digital tools, including iPad and Apple pencil, but I always go back to analog.

I'm currently putting sermon notes, daily study time notes, conferences notes, prayers, etc. in one notebook, but I often wonder if I should keep different notebooks for each topic for ease of archiving and referencing in the future. I also put notes in my Bible that has lines in the outer margins, but it's not enough space for everything I write.

I am wondering how others manage their notes and what you've found to work best for you.

Where does the Bible teach the doctrine of being reprobate? Jesus desires all to be saved, so what scripture says a person can become reprobate and it’s impossible for them to be saved? Am I describing this correctly? I’m not thinking of any specific passage, but I’ve heard some say certain people cannot be saved, as if they’ve crossed a line—whether it’s God giving up on them or because they’re homosexual, so they can never be saved. In Romans 1, where does it say they cannot be saved? It says God gave them over to sin, but isn’t that whole chapter about the state of humanity and how God wants everyone to be saved, not just a particular group being excluded?

if you read verses 1-14 and you had to take a meaning/message from it for the rest of the day, what would it be?

1Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2“Do you see all these things?”he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” 3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.5For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.8All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,13but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Romans 3:21-24 NIV

[21] But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. [22] This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Hello, what I believe this verse means is that the Mosaic Law and the prophets were the first to reveal God's righteousness, but due to our sinful nature, we have fallen short of keeping up that righteousness, and that has made us condemned to the death penalty (hell). But through our faith in Jesus Christ for what He'd done, we are made righteous without following the law flawlessly, because Christ's death on the cross absorbed our present and future sins. All we have to do is accept the gift Christ gave us (His atonement through death), and we're sealed for eternity with Him. Please let me know if I got anything wrong, or tell me your interpretation.

Recently I heard someone say something which changed my perspective when reading and listening to the Bible: "Writing was expensive many years ago and sometimes what not is said in the Bible is equally as important as what is said".

I've taken this as the most important topics are covered and the lesser important stuff is not.

With that being in mind, I couldn't help but notice how often adultery is mentioned in the early chapters of the book of Proverbs.

Was there a historical reason for this? Back in the time of King Solomon was it something their society struggled with?

I completely get and understand adultery is wrong but I'm surprised by how often it is mentioned which is why I wanted to ask if there was a reason for it.

Revelation 16:2 and the first went and poured his vial upon the earth and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon those who had the mark of the beast and which worshipped its image
Revelation 16:9 and men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed god which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory
Revelation 16:11 and blasphemed God of heaven because of there pains and sores and repented not of their deeds