Welcome
Since we launched this little magazine earlier this year, we have been encouraged by the positive response and delighted to see the subscription list grow. We hope you find this, the second offering, to be as useful and encouraging as the first. You may download it now by clicking on the cover image to the right.
We have again included an assortment of articles, word studies, reviews and other focus areas – some of which have picked up from where we left off the last time. We recognise that the short articles are just that, rather short, and though they can never really begin to deal with matters in any depth we hope they at least provide something of an introduction to the matters raised.
We didn’t really begin with a particular theme for this issue, but there has developed something of a thread along the lines of story-telling which runs through a number of articles here. That in itself has become something of a lost art, but one to which each of us can contribute by telling our own story of how God has worked and is working within us to make us the people he wants us to be.
You might find it useful to consult our web site for additional information and a little background to some of the articles, along with some suggestions for further reading.
BiBloS is to be published in an online format, three times each year, and downloadable from our web site. We certainly welcome any feedback you care to give, and ideas of how we make it better – we just ask that you be gracious!
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to share it far and wide. And may this be a blessing to us all, that we might be a blessing to the world in which we live.
Patrick
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The Expired Word?
The English word ‘inspiration’ has an interesting history, dating from perhaps the early part of the 14th century. The basic underlying idea is of an external influence or stimulation producing extraordinary effects within a given object or person. Within theology,... -
Perfect Unicorns
I am old enough to remember an advert for CDM. It was a good advert and I enjoyed it because I was a great fan of CDM; it was my favourite chocolate. It still would be if I had not... -
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: a chronology
As we seek to understand God’s word better, it is often useful to take the time to sketch out a chronology of the lives of those we are studying. Often, we assume the ages of the characters to be what... -
The Narrative of Scripture
The idea that the Bible somehow expresses its authority in a series of arbitrary dos and don’ts or as a handbook of essential doctrines is, to any who have read the book, quite simply absurd. There are dos and there... -
The Lion Handbook to the Bible (fourth edition)
The Lion Handbook to the Bible was originally intended as a revision of the Inter-Varsity Press’s New Bible Handbook, first edited by G. T. Manley. However the new editors, husband and wife David and Pat Alexander, wanted to make the... -
Studying Parables of Jesus
In our day to day language we often use figures of speech to add colour and interest to our conversations. We might describe someone as being “as brave as a lion” or we might say someone is behaving “like a... -
Have You Got a Light?
Life is a journey. Our path may be long, it may be short – it may have many twists and turns with unexpected surprises along the way – but in the midst of much confusion and contrary advice we might... -
Apollos of Alexandria
Apollos was a well-educated man from the city of Alexandria in Egypt. He was well acquainted with the Old Testament scriptures and was familiar with John the Baptist’s teachings. In the middle of the first century A.D. he came to... -
Mark: The Gospel Truth (Part Two)
We have seen how it is plausible to read Mark’s Gospel as being in fact the memoirs of Simon Peter. Of the twelve disciples it is his name that appears most frequently and if we... -
Tel Lachish
Driving for about half an hour south-southwest from Tel Beth-Shemesh, where we were in the last issue of BiBloS, we arrive at another mound – one of the largest and most prominent in southern Israel. This is Tel Lachish, the... -
On Trial
I grew up wanting to be a priest but, as you probably know, to serve the Lord in His holy Temple in this capacity you have to be able to show that you are a direct descendant of great Aaron,...