[MA-luh-kahy] {ma3-la1-ji1-shu1}Old Testament – Minor Prophets The Hebrew Bible used by most Jewish people is essentially identical in content to the Old Testament of Protestant Christianity. They are the same Books but in different orders and arrangements. Case in point, we already talked about how Hebrew Scripture concludes with the Book of Chronicles, not Malachi. However, the historical record of Chronicles ended with…
Category: Pronounce
Elijah & Elisha
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…
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…
Haggai
哈該書 {ha1-gai1-shu1}Old Testament – Minor Prophets Trust your instinct on how to pronounce his name: [HA-gahy]. Haggai is a very short Book (2 chapters only) with a laser-focused purpose: directing the Israelites to resume the rebuilding of the 2nd Temple. Remember when King Cyrus of Persia sent the Israelite exiles back to rebuild the temple, then King Artaxerxes stopped…
Philistines 非利士人
Israel had its fair share of enemies over its ancient existence, ranging from localized tribal forces to vast empires. None quite compared to the Philistines. It wasn’t because the Philistines were the strongest, certainly no stronger than the Babylonians. Instead, they are particularly fresh on our minds due to their long history of entanglement, good and…
1/2 Corinthians
哥林多前/後書New Testament – Epistles 1 and 2 Corinthians [kuh-RIN-thee-uhnz] were Paul’s two letters addressed to the church in the city of Corinth [KO-rinth]. Apostle Paul first visited Corinth on his way to preach the Gospel to Macedonia. During his visit, God advised him to lengthen his stay in Corinth, so Paul spent a year and a half…
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…