Introduction to this
Website
First of all, if you are an unbeliever,
click here
(HTML)
(PDF);
if you are a new believer, then click here (HTML)
(PDF).
Also, if you are an unbeliever, see this
warning [HTML]
[PDF];
it
is a different sort of warning than you
might expect.
Search this Website (at one time this worked; but now it does not; I don't know what code to place here)
My most recent
studies.
Now, about the Website:
When
it comes to having a relationship with
God, there is one way this is
achieved, and that is by placing faith
alone in Christ alone; this is
the only way of salvation. Our
lives may or may not bear this salvation
out (see the Doctrinal
Statement for more information on
this). Some believers, after
believing in Jesus Christ, spend the
rest of their Christian lives out of
fellowship after they commit their first
post-salvation sin. Now, they may
be religious or they may seem hell-bent,
but one's life after salvation is
separate from salvation. One's
Christian life is related to being
saved, but it is a separate matter in
many respects.
This is a website dedicated primarily to
the word-by-word and verse by verse
study of the word of God. Included
in these first pages are links to such
studies of Genesis,
Exodus,
Leviticus,
Numbers,
Deuteronomy,
Joshua,
Judges,
Ruth,
1Samuel,
2Samuel,
1Kings,
1Chronicles,
Job,
Psalms,
Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes,
the Song of Solomon; Luke,
Acts,
Romans,
Colossians,
and Hebrews.
These books are examined, some of them,
in great detail; and for some of them,
this process of study is just beginning.
For most of these books, there is also
an index/links page available as an HTML
document or as a PDF document. For
instance, for Genesis, this document is
Genesislinks.htm
or Genesislinks.pdf
(same document, different formal).
The index/links document related to
Exodus is Exodus_links.htm
or Exodus_links.pdf.
Most of the master documents (with links
to each chapter) are in the Exodus
format (with the underscore). The
original document is done in WordPerfect
rather than Word, and without going into
excessive detail about this choice, let
me list two primary reasons: WordPerfect
is cheaper (older versions go for a song
in ebay) and WP allows me to have more
than one keyboard. I have a
keyboard for English, for Greek, and for
Hebrew. Word cannot do this.
I highly recommend that you choose
WordPerfect over Word; but you do as you
like.
In many cases, there are more than one
set of documents (which can be accessed
via the index/links document for each
book). For instance, there are
four sets of documents for the book of
Genesis.
1. I am currently writing a single
document commentary on Genesis which
will be about 300 pages and completed by
summer's end 2024. I write a
verse-by-verse light study of each
chapter, and this brief summary (5-15
pages) are combined to make this
commentary. This is the single
document Genesis (HTML)
(PDF)
(WPD).
For each chapter, there are one or more
titles, one or more paragraphs of
summary, and the main body is filled
with the 5-15 page chapter summaries.
2. I wrote a verse-by-verse study
of Genesis many years ago, and that is
still available. The Old
single document Genesis (452
pages) is found here: (HTML)
(PDF)
(WPD).
3. I recently sent out a weekly
lesson on Genesis by email. I
would bundle up each set of 100 lessons
and post them online. See the Basic
Lessons on Genesis. (Genesis Lessons 1–100
HTML)
(Genesis Lessons 1–100
PDF)
(Genesis Lessons 1–100
WPD).
That is one set of lessons, but with
links to the other lessons.
Including the introductory lessons, I
believe that there are 5 or 6 documents
online and they can be all be found
here. Basic
Exegesis.
4. The chapter studies are the
most detailed. Every word of every
verse is given, along with its meaning
and etymology. Then three original
translations are developed and
commentary is added. At the end of
every chapter is a summary.
Everything above is included in the
chapter studies. For Genesis,
these documents can be accessed through
the index/links documents (Genesislinks.htm)
or (Genesislinks.pdf)
(same document, different formal).
Or, for some of you, going to the Index
of all of these files is the easiest way
to access them. That would be (Genesis).
I am rewriting this first page, and I
got to this point. I will continue
sometime in the future.
Now, let’s just assume for a moment that
you actually believe in the same tenets
of Christianity that I do; still, this
site may not be for you. 99% of
believers (if not 99.99%) need to be
under the teaching of a pastor teacher,
and I am not a pastor teacher. I
once thought that was my gift, and I
have since changed my mind. For
those of you who are believers and in a
church where doctrine is taught
exegetically and categorically, with
emphasis upon the original languages and
the historical context of the
Scriptures, this site will have limited
value to you. You will get most of
your growth from your
pastor-teacher. This site, for
you, will give you some reference
material. If you need a quick and
dirty explanation for this or that Old
Testament passage, you might very well
find it on this website. However,
I have only exegeted the first 10 books
of the Bible, along with a few dozen
psalms, and, quite frankly, I am only
pleased with the outcome of Genesis and
1 and 2Samuel and I am working on the
books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Judges,
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to bring that
up to snuff.
The primary reason for this website is
really as a comprehensive approach to
help some pastors and some seminary
students out in a limited number of
books (so far, Genesis,
1Samuel
and portions of Judges,
2Samuel,
1Chronicles,
and the Psalms).
The
work done on the other books will be
handy for reference material, albeit,
incomplete. Whereas, these are
good commentaries on the Pentateuch
and the first couple books of historical
narrative, I don’t see them as my best
work by any means. At this point
in time, Genesis, 1and 2Samuel and a few
of the psalms and a few chapters of
1Chronicles represent my best work, and
a pastor or a student can look at these
for a thorough, one-stop, exegetical
study of these books. Also, I have
begun a study of the book of Genesis,
designed, for the most part, to provide
bite-sized portions of this book in each
lesson, with an attempt to present the
material accurately without a complete
Hebrew exegesis. There is
introductory material (HTML)
(PDF),
along
with the first 100 lessons (HTML)
(PDF).
All of the study that you might need to
do in the Hebrew and in most categories
related to this book has been done for
you. My exegesis of 1Samuel is
about 4000 pages, so you may rest
assured that almost every question that
has ever come to your mind about this
book has been answered or, at least,
proposed, within these 4000 pages.
The "Links" page for each book
(available in HTML, PDF or WP) will tell
you exactly how much work has been done
in each chapter.
My hope is this: there are many pastors
who are barely able to put out 3 or 4
doctrinal lessons a week. I am
hoping that, after using some of the
documents for background research that
they might have enough trust in the work
that I have done to use these chapters
as their research to teach entire books
and possibly even teach an additional
class each week. Many of us have
come out of Berachah Church when R. B.
Thieme, Jr. was teaching as many as 9
classes a week. I realize that
most pastors are just unable to keep up
with a schedule like this (Bob claimed
to teach 8-12 hours a day!). There
is simply too much research and studying
to be done for even the most dedicated
pastor-teacher to teach more than 3 or 4
lessons a week. The intent here is
to have already done the majority of
that research.
Apart from these exegetical studies, I
have posted two notable studies: the
first one is on the Doctrine
of Tongues. I have probably
the most thorough examination of this
spiritual gift, and I have included an
historical perspective of the
charismatic movement, which I think is
most telling. Furthermore, I also
provide within this study the
correct
explanation for 1Cor. 13:1, which
explanation I do not believe has ever
been properly taught before (however, I
have been in communication with two
pastors who have or will be teaching
this in the near future, so it will be
explained and it will get out
there). You must bear in mind that
almost every tongues-speaking church
hangs its hat on this one verse; and,
without this verse to back them up,
there are no tongues of angels spoken of
anywhere else in Scripture. The
sad misinterpretation of this verse is
the very foundation for the tongues
movement. You take this away, and
there is no foundation for tongues being
equivalent to speaking gibberish in
church.
The second notable study in this book is
an examination of the various English
translations
of Scripture. I must admit
that I entered this study with a
particular viewpoint and attitude, which
changed after studying the huge variety
of translations which are available to
the English speaking world. You
may find the discussions of the
individual books to sometimes be tedious
(I need to fix that); however, near the
end of this study, I have a great many
principles summarized and put into an
easy to follow table. If you are
trying to determine which is going to be
your primary Bible or whether you should
add one or two Bibles to your
collection, it is here that you will
probably find your answer. I am
critical of some of these translations
from time to time, but I have found many
of them to have some great selling
points as well (including the Good News
Bible and the Contemporary English
Version, which Bibles did not light my
fire at first glance).
Apart from this, I do have a number of doctrines
included throughout, usually designed to
be taught within the context or this or
that passage, but which doctrines will
also provide you a thorough and
well-researched perspective on the topic
or topics covered. Although I tend
to go overboard when it comes to detail,
many of these doctrines are also
summarized or reduced in size to cover
the most succinct points.
As an aside, I love having the
privilege, time and ability to do
this. I am, however, less
enthusiastic about proofreading.
So, there will be typographical errors
and some other errors throughout.
These are unintentional; but God did not
give me the gift of proofreading.
: )
Obviously, you should not represent any
of this work as your own, and if you
quote from it, you should indicate the
source. Much of my work quotes
other sources, and references will be
found throughout. Even if there is
a thought or a point of view which did
not occur to me, I will usually cite the
person whose work suggested this point
of view to me.
As I studied these books with a
ferocious thoroughness, I
was surprised to unearth an occasional
truth or interpretation here and there
which I believe has not been presented
before. Don’t misunderstand
me—you are not going to find any weird
doctrines and points of view which
contradict orthodox theology in this
site—but now and again, you are going to
come across a passage, it will be
explained to you, and a light will go on
in your head. “Well, damn,” you’ll
say to yourself, “that makes sense
now!” Several examples stand out
in my mind: (1) why the gospel is less
perspicuous in the Old Testament than in
the New? (2) The correct exegesis
of 1Cor. 13:1. (3) Why did God
bring Samuel back from the dead to speak
to Saul? There was nothing that
Samuel said to Saul that could not have
been known in another way (in fact, I
don't think that Samuel told Saul much
of anything). (4) Why did Jesus
turn water into wine for his first
public miracle? Isn't that sort of
a parlor trick? Why did Jesus heal
someone for his first public
miracle? (5) Did OT writers and
prophets really understand in full what
they were writing? These are not
earth-shattering truths which will shake
your doctrinal foundation; however, they
will help you to put things into
perspective, and your theological
ideology is going to have fewer holes as
a result. As you come across these
things, you'll either remark to
yourself, or I never looked at it that way
before or
now
that passage makes sense!
One final note: my profession, for most
of my life, was a teacher, and
principally of geometry. What I
primarily tried to get across to my
students is the logical progression of
thought in that mathematical
science. I try to bring that same
logical progression of thought into
these works that you will find
within. And, once and awhile I
succeed at this.
The Purpose of this Website
It might be important for you to
understand my motivation in creating
this web page. First of all, I
don’t want any money and I provide no
means in this web site for you to send
me money. I am not looking
for a pastorate; as that is not my
spiritual gift. I don’t need any
sort of following nor am I looking for
any sort of following. Believe me,
the last thing I want to do have a
handful of people look to me for
guidance; and no way do I want to lead
anyone else’s life for them. My
only intent is to provide information on
the Word of God, acting almost more like
an editor than an author in most cases,
although I do occasionally offer an
unique insight or perspective now and
again (at least, I have found no one
else offering the same
information). My only intent is to
be as accurate and as thorough as
possible.
Beginning with the books of Judges and
Samuel and including some of the psalms,
I am hoping to provide the most thorough
approach to that book—that is, even for
a pastor preparing a lesson, I am hoping
that the material found on any chapter,
verse or book is going to be sufficient
for a complete understanding of
same. If anything, I repeat
certain points too much and, if
anything, I have too much information on
the passages which I cover. My
exegesis of 1Samuel is about 4000
typewritten pages. If there is
more than one strongly held position of
the meaning of this passage or that,
then I stop and explore that issue
thoroughly. If I can take a stand,
I do. If the passage is
sufficiently difficult, and the position
to take for me is difficult, then I will
tell you so. I’m not afraid to
say, “Hey, I’m guessing here.” Or,
“These are the three predominant
viewpoints, and here are the pros and
cons—you choose.”
My intent here is to making easier
research and then teaching of the
passages which I have covered. If
you’re a pastor, and you decide to use
the material here to help you put
together an exegetical study of the book
of Judges or the books of Samuel, I
think that, after a few hours study, you
will see that referring to your other
commentaries will be fruitless; that
other commentators simply do not have
the depth to really devote a thorough
examination of the books I have covered.
That being said, I do offer particular
points of view. Even though, at
one time, I did examine various cults
and movements as possible sources of
understanding, I now shun all cults and
cultic behaviors (and I recommend that
you do the same). There are a few
insights which I offer which were not
taught before (to the best of my
knowledge), but these insights do not
conflict with orthodoxy, nor do they
involve new mechanics or any sort of
radical redevelopment of the faith as it
has come down to us. In these very
few areas, I know there is a reason for
it, not necessarily associated
immediately with the Church Age, but
with the Age that is to come.
Let me offer you an example: the book of
Esther. This is a unique book of
Scripture, as there is no direct mention
of God and I believe all of the attempts
to insert God’s name into this book are
deviations from the truth. Every
explanation which I have heard in the
past concerning this unique aspect is
either patently false or simply does not
ring entirely true. Furthermore,
some key elements of the book of Esther
are ignored:
1. Very few Christians
know anything about the book of Esther.
Yes,
of course, very few Christians know
anything about anything; but this
ignorance is even more pronounced with
respect to the book of Esther.
2. On the other hand,
the book of Esther is one of the few
books of the Old Testament which many
Jews, even semi-religious ones, are
well-acquainted with. Most Jews
know enough, when the book of Esther is
read, to hiss when the name of Haman is
read. Most Christians upon hearing
this reaction for the first time would
be perplexed.
3. The Jews are
scattered among the nations today, and
are relatively successful; just like the
Jews in the book of Esther.
4. The Jews give no
thought to God in the book of Esther,
even though God’s presence and actions
cry out to us from this book. It
is as though the Jews of the book of
Esther, the Jews who find themselves in
a foreign nation, no longer recognize
the God Who continues to preserve them
and continues to reveal His love for
them in all of His actions.
5. These Jews in the
book of Esther are just like the Jews of
today—even the religious Jews.
They do not recognize the God Who bought
them; they do not recognize the true God
Who formed them. They are
separated from this God even though this
God continues to love and preserve them.
6. At some point in
time, the book of Esther will be read at
the Feast of Purim, and some Jew, under
the influence of God the Holy Spirit,
will say, “We are the Jews in this
book—we do not know the God Who
continues to love us and continues to
preserve us. We have refused to
see the True God of Israel in our
lives. We have faced the attacks
of man and of Satan again and again in
our past, and God has preserved us as a
people; and yet, we do not know this
God; we do not acknowledge this
God. We have refused to recognize
that the God of Israel is Jesus Christ,
Who offered Himself to us, and Whom we
keep rejecting, just as the Scriptures
record our rejections of God many times
in the past. The Jews in the book
of Esther fast and they go through
various ceremonies, but they do not seem
to know God—they are just like us
today!” God preserved and protect
them, but they did not realize that it
was God; God preserves and protects us
today, but we do not know who He is
either.
7. From here, one
could read the many Old Testament
passages of the Jews going after other
gods, or of the numerous warnings from
God that the Jews would be scattered
throughout the world, or of the many
prophecies fulfilled in the person of
Jesus Christ. And at this point,
the person of Jesus Christ will be
revealed to many who are listening to
that teaching.
8. For these Jews, at
some point in the future, the book of
Esther and how it relates to them today
is going to click; they will understand
it. They know it and they have
read it many times, but, at some point
in time, the message of the book of
Esther is going to make direct contact
with their souls and they will
understand. "For I will pour out
on the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of
grace and pleas for mercy, so that,
when they look on me, on him whom they
have pierced, they shall mourn for
him, as one mourns for an only child,
and weep bitterly over him, as one
weeps over a firstborn." (Zech.
12:10).
You see, since my interests tend to
focus on the Old Testament, I believe
that much of what is found in these web
pages will be taught at the appropriate
time in the future. Much of this
information, although applicable and
important to believers in the Church
Age, is going to be more pertinent to
the Jews in the Age to come.
I should mention that, even though I was
spiritually raised in Berachah Church
(and still attend there), I am not
beholden to them nor is this site
sponsored by them in any way, shape or
form. Although I certainly agree
with them in all major points of
doctrine, there will be an occasional
interpretation here or there, and a
minor doctrine, where we may not see eye
to eye on. I am not related in any
way to any church or organization that I
link to, to any theologian that I quote,
or to any seminary or
denomination. The only
restrictions that I am under is my own
conscience and the teaching ministry of
God the Holy Spirit. I attempt at
100% accuracy, and would be overjoyed if
I attain 98–99% accuracy. The key
is this: there is no earthly reward or
tie which has any effect upon what I
teach in this web site. However, I
will readily admit to greatly enjoying
this study.
Now, for the most part, there will be
few laymen who are interested in this
site. I believe that oral teaching
is the primary means by which those who
are not in the clergy learn their
doctrine, and I have provided plenty of
links to sites where this information
can be obtained orally. In this
day and age of computers, there is no
excuse for anyone not to make use of the
vast resources of the internet. If
you have a true interest in the Word of
God, God will lead you to accurate
teaching. As a very young
believer, you would not believe all the
material that I read, searching for the
truth, including a great deal of cultic
literature. However, God led me in
a very short time to the careful and
consistent teaching of Bob Thieme, Jr.
(I refer to his teaching from the 1960's
into the mid-1970's).
I hope, in these many pages, to provide
a shortcut for some overworked pastor or
two. You may not have the time,
but you have the desire to teach more
often than you are teaching. These
studies gather a great deal of
information and make this available to
you with very little digging. The
only thing that I ask is to give credit
where credit is due. You will
note, all quotations found in here are
all referenced. I do not pretend
to be some theological genius; just
someone who can reasonably edit accurate
points of view expressed throughout the
past several centuries. And, now
and again, I have a fresh or interesting
approach to a passage, or an insight,
which I have not seen presented before.
What you will also find here is most of
the variant readings, some of which I
have included even when they seem to
make little or no difference in
interpretation of the text (1Sam.
26:23 for example).
I also offer many of the alternate
explanations; however, I am not as
thorough in this respect, as I tend to
ignore many of the understandings which
appear to be devotional, but are
seemingly devoid of any real
content. Most of the time, I will
take a stand on the understanding of a
verse, yet often offer arguments for and
against my opinion and opposing
opinions.
Now, I am not really interested in
getting into theological arguments with
anyone else because the standard
approach is to make a point, and then
name a few passages which support this
point. You can prove almost
anything using this approach,
particularly if context and relevant
passages are ignored.
I am not really in the business of
answering questions, although I may
answer a few. My experience in the
past is, most people with questions have
not really taken the time to learn God’s
Word in the first place. Others
tend to focus on the most irrelevant
minutiae. I may answer an
occasional question or two; but that is
not my focus.
This is not a website which is a jumping
off point to point to your
website. I have a list of links
and I will consider links offered by
others. However, I have noticed
that some people are only concerned with
spreading legalism and lies over the
internet, offering that 3 or 4 or 5
steps to salvation (there is only one
step, by the way).
Finally, it was not until 1Sam. 13 when
I set up a more user-friendly approach
to the exegetical study of God’s Word
(which I have begun to backtrack and
insert in previous books—at present,
Judges and 1Samuel). What I find,
for instance, in the teaching of Keil
and Delitzsch is that they tend to be
rather dense. That is, it requires
30 minutes to unravel a few sentences or
two, even though the information they
provide is generally accurate and
helpful. Even with the teachings
of R. B. Thieme, Jr., there is the
intermixture of the original languages
with the exegesis. Now, exegesis
is dependent upon the correct
translation, which is dependent upon the
original languages. However, some
people do not want to wade through the
Greek or the Hebrew in order to
understand a passage. Therefore, I
have designed these pages so that one
can easily skip over the Hebrew, but yet
be able to refer back to it when he
questions this translation or
that. This was actually in
response to someone who criticized my
constant references to the Hebrew, which
was previously mixed in with the
explanation of each verse. I could
see how it would be easy to miss some of
the important points here or there,
because of skimming over the sections
with the Hebrew. Therefore, I
separated the Hebrew (and Greek) into
tables (1) so that each and every Hebrew
word and its morphology could be easily
found and examined; (2) and so that the
Hebrew could be ignored when the reader
chooses to ignore it.
My earliest studies, such as the book of
Genesis,
are so woefully superficial that even I
am embarrassed. However, I will
include those on the internet until the
day that I update them. If I had
time and the energy, I would update
everything from Genesis to the first
part of 1Samuel. However, my
primary constriction is that, I can only
study for so many hours (2–4 a day)
before running out of gas.
As it stands now, what you will find in
my studies of Genesis
and Exodus
are good supplementary studies; in Leviticus,
Numbers,
Deuteronomy,
and Joshua,
most of what you need to know about
those books can be found in my exegesis;
and in Judges,
Ruth
and 1Samuel
(as well as a portion of 1Chronicles and
some of the Psalms), you can glean
almost everything you need to know from
what I present here. The biggest
drawback in my approach to most of these
books, is that the Hebrew exegesis is
mixed in with the analysis of the verse,
and some may find that disconcerting or
unwieldy (I am beginning to deal with
that problem). In 1Samuel and in
many of the Psalms, the Hebrew exegesis
is set up in such a way so that you can
easily bypass it or use it, whichever
you prefer.
I hope that you are blessed and edified
by the studies which I offer
herein. Or, I hope, in the
alternative, that you explore the links
which I have provided and find solid
teaching on the other end of that mouse
click. There are some outstanding
pastor-teachers out there available
through the internet, whose teachings
can be downloaded or ordered; and I on
my links page, I have provided you the
websites of those pastors. For
about 95–99% of the believers out there,
your best approach is to get under the
vocal teaching of a pastor; that is
God’s intent and God’s plan for
you. If you are living in a city
where there are no good, doctrinal
churches, then the alternative is to
download or order the studies of a good,
ICE pastor (one who teaches isagogics,
categories and exegesis) and study those
lessons regularly and faithfully.
Now, I do need some help:
Just in case you have read down this
far. I am coming across on the
average one minor mistake per verse so I
do need a proofreader. The typical
mistakes are, indicating that there is a
definite article, when there is not one;
or leaving off the 3rd person
masculine singular suffix, or
representing a perfect tense and an
imperfect tense. Quite franky, I
just get bored with proofreading, so I
rarely do it. I need someone who
has a small understanding of Hebrew,
possesses Owen's Analytical
Guide to the Old Testament, who
will simply go through the Hebrew, word
by word, and make certain that I have
the correct words and the correct
morphology. It is thankless and
almost mindless work, as you would
simply compare the Strong's numbers to
those given in the KJV+ (in, for
instance, e-sword) to what I have; and
compare the morphology found in Owen to
what I list. I would prefer to be
accurate in these areas, and have made
every attempt to be; however, now and
again I am not.
Search this Website
|