撒母耳記下 {sa4-mu3-er3-ji4-xia4}Old Testament – Historical Books I know you know how to pronounce Samuel. I know you know what 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel talk about. So why bother talking about them here? But please indulge me with just two questions. First, “Who wrote 1 Samuel?” Samuel, you might say, and that’s not wrong. But 1 Samuel 25:1 says,…
Category: Books
Nahum
那鴻書 {na4-hong2-shu1}Old Testament – Minor Prophets The anglicized pronunciation of Nahum can either be:[NEY-uhm] or [NEY-huhm]. Basically, it’s optional to pronounce “h”. Nahum is a book of prophecy addressed to Nineveh 尼尼微 {ni2-ni2-wei1}, not Israel or Judah. The literal meaning of the word “prophecy” is “burden“. So imagine God placing a crushing burden upon Nineveh. Who can…
Job, Not job
約伯記 {yue1-bo2-ji4}Old Testament – Wisdom Books Job, is quite possibly the most misunderstood Book for many reasons. First, let’s get the easy one out of the way. It’s not pronounced like “job” as in “good job” or “Steve Jobs”. Instead, it sounds like how you would pronounce “jobe”. If you finish the entire book, all…
Elephants Never Forget
In a different post, we ventured into the elusive realm of memory. As they say, in for a penny, in for a pound, so shall we take another stab at it? This time, we turn our attention to long-term memory, which serves different purposes such as retaining the Biblical knowledge that constitutes the bulk of our interpretation. Compared…
Galatians
加拉太書 {jia1-la1-tai4-shu1}New Testament – Epistles Pronounce as [guh-LEH-shuns]As in “garage-LAte-cushions“ The Letter to Galatians is a special Book in New Testament. While the other letters were either addressed to the believers of a city (Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians) or to a single church in a city (1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians), Galatians was addressed to multiple churches in the region of Galatia [guh-LEH-shuh]. Only…
Acts
使徒行傳 {shi3-tu2-xing2-zhuan4}New Testament – Acts Acts is short for Acts of the Apostles, literally 使徒行傳. Acts is actually the second volume of a work called “Luke-Acts”. Go take a look at how Luke 1 and Acts 1 address the same person, Theophilus, which is a great name if you ask me. “Theo” means God. “Philus” is derived from the Greek word for “friend”. Theophilus…
Ephesians
以弗所書/以弗所书 {yi3-fu2-suo3-shu1}New Testament – Epistles Ephesians, read as [i-FEE-zhuhnz], is a theological treasure trove. New believers can come here to gain a solid grasp on the foundation of the Faith. “Seasoned” Christians can always take a deeper dive and receive yet another insight into how to glorify God with their lives. It is for that reason,…
By the Book
I think many of us got off on the wrong foot with the Bible. It has, in most cases, been thrown into our laps like an assignment that takes us away from our “productive and meaningful” lives. Yet we fail to see that the Bible is the very secret that gives clarity, meaning, and strategy…
Habakkuk
哈巴谷書 {ha1-ba1-gu3-shu1}Old Testament – Minor Prophets There’s nothing minor about the prophet Habakkuk and nothing inferior about his prophecies. “Minor” is simply a description of the book volume (3 chapters) as compared to the “major” ones such as the Book of Isaiah (66 chapters). A total of 12 Minor Prophet Books including Habakkuk were placed…
Ecclesiastes
傳道書/传道书 {chuan2-dao4-shu1}Old Testament – Wisdom Books Slow down for this: [ih-klee-zi-AS-teez]Or, start with “easy as tees”, then “ecleasy as tees” Ecclesiastes comes from the Greek word, Ἐκκλησιαστής, which translates the Hebrew title of this book, קֹהֶלֶת (qoheleth). All of them mean “the Preacher” or “傳道 {chuan2-dao4}”. Here’s something fun, if you take the first 8 letters from Ἐκκλησιαστής, you get ἐκκλησία,…