You can’t talk about Ahab without talking about Elijah. You can’t talk about Elijah without talking about Elisha. So let’s talk about them. It is equally tricky to distinguish the pronunciation and spelling of their names in Chinese and in English. In case you haven’t heard enough about them yet:Elijah [ee-LAHY-jah] 以利亞 {yi3-li4-ya3}Elisha [ee-LAHY-shah] 以利沙 {yi3-li4-sha1} Note: If…
Category: Character
Don’t Be That Guy
From the good old kings of Israel and Judah to emperors of superpowers, we’ve covered a lot of kings here. That leaves an area of glaring neglect, how about the overwhelming number of evil ones? Those evil kings of Israel and Judah shared some common traits and faults, among which God’s primary concern was idolatry of…
The Prophet Across Ages
Prophet Isaiah 以賽亞 {yi3-sai4-ya3} truly stood out among the prophets of the Old Testament, and so did his Book among other Books. He prophesied to the Kingdom of Judah through the reigns of 4 kings, most notably that of King Hezekiah. Since he started his prophetic duty sometime during Uzziah’s reign, then the entirety of Jotham (16 yrs), Ahaz (16 yrs), and…
A Leader Without a Crown
Keeping up with the topic of leaders, let’s look at one without a crown or a kingdom. His name is Zerubbabel [zuh-ROO-buh-buhl] 所羅巴伯 {suo3-luo2-ba1-bo2}, son of Shealtiel. Zeruba-what, you ask? Granted, he wasn’t listed as a king of Israel or Judah or named as one of the prophets. Nevertheless, he was a key figure in the history of Israel and God’s…
Persian Empire 波斯帝國
When the Bible mentions Persia, it refers to the Achaemenid [uh-KEE-muh-nid] Empire 阿契美尼德帝國 {a1-qi4-mei3-ni2-de2-di4-guo2}, a.k.a Medo-Persian Empire 瑪代波斯帝國 {mai3-dai4-bo1-si1-di4-guo2} (the latter emphasizing the two peoples that constitute the empire, Medes and Persians. It’s complicated since Persia subsumed Media first, then Lydia, then Babylon, so let’s just stick to Persia). Persia took over all the dominions of Babylon, including the Hebrew exiles,…
A King Like No Other
We can’t talk about good kings without mentioning Josiah 約西亞 {yue1-xi1-ya3}, who was described like this in 2 Kings 23:25, “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.” That…
Lookalikes
I get it, most of us haven’t taken any Hebrew-as-a-Second-Language classes. Naturally, a lot of names in the Bible can sound confusingly similar. For example, a group of them has been bugging me for the longest time so I’ve decided to lay them all out, in hope that they can be settled once and for all….
Empires
You’ve seen them throughout the Bible, the Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Romans, etc. They were not particularly a friendly bunch. In fact, the very definition of an empire is a state that has political and military control over other states. If they were ever mentioned in the Bible, chances are they had locked horns with God’s people….
2 Samuel
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,…
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…