Scripture-ish

But now the time has come to go away. I go to die, and you to live; but which of us goes to the better lot, is known to none but God. — Socrates To live is Christ and to die is gain. —Paul One time Peter got put in prison in Jerusalem during the time of Passover. The story is told in Acts 12. The year was probably AD 44. The text says that it was King Herod who put him in prison. Now, there are va...

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,and they are caught in the toils of their sin. (Proverbs 5:22) I have actually heard people say that Juneteenth is a holiday for only one segment of the population. But what I can’t figure out is why we would not expect Black people to celebrate? Obviously it’s a holiday for white people—or, let’s put it this way: it must be a time of celebration for those...

Buy the book at 21st Century Christian . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

Buy the book at 21st Century Christian . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

God said it, I believe, that settles it. But what does it settle? Thanks for reading Gallagher! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Accepting Christian Scripture as true does not determine its meaning. Interpretation is always necessary, and the more important the theological claim, the more important it is to interpret the claim in a sensible or true way. By the way, this...

Buy the book at 21st Century Christian . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

Buy the book at 21st Century Christian . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

Should you read the Minor Prophets as if these twelve different prophetic voices together constitute a single book? I have a definite answer to this question: hmm, maybe. Thanks for reading Gallagher! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a thing that scholars like to talk about—or, at least, they used to. Maybe it’s not so in fashion now to engage in scholarly argum...

Buy the book at 21st Century Christian . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

Buy the book at 21st Century Christian . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

The Minor Prophets were translated into Greek probably sometime in the second century BC, probably either in Egypt or Palestine, and apparently all by a single translator. (See Tov 2019 : 130–31.) The same translator was perhaps also responsible for the Greek translation of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The translation is quite close to the traditional Hebrew text (the Masoretic Text; Tov 2019: 132). The...

Buy the book at 21st Century Christian . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

This essay is based on a sermon I preached several weeks ago. The video for the sermon is at the end of this post. I have continued to think about these issues, and I’m sure I’m not done thinking about them. Perhaps this way of approaching the subject of Christian forgiveness will be helpful to people. To err is human, to forgive divine. — Alexander Pope There’s an episode of the TV show Blue Bloo...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain much material relevant to the study of the Minor Prophets. There are eight Minor Prophets scrolls from the Dead Sea Scrolls, plus some Minor Prophets scrolls from other locations in the Judean Desert, plus some Dead Sea Scrolls that transmit commentaries on the Minor Prophets. But what do we mean by “Minor Prophets scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls”? I mean a scroll tha...

Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Love of God This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmongallagher.substack.com

The medieval Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible are called Masoretic because they contain the Masorah (“tradition”), which includes elements such as the vowel signs and notes and accent marks and, of course, the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible. The best Masoretic manuscripts that survive, and the oldest, are the Aleppo Codex (925 AD) and the Leningrad Codex (1009 AD). It is the latter, the Lenin...

In what is perhaps the most famous speech in American history, maybe the greatest speech in American history, the sixteenth president of these United States envisioned “a new birth of freedom.” Let’s consider what he meant, and how it has turned out. George Whitefield (1714–1770)—who died younger than did Abraham Lincoln, by the way—liked to tell people that they needed new birth. Whitefield was a...

And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. (John 9:39–41) Old Isaac in Genesis 27 was f...

Three years ago, my dad—Timothy Louis Gallagher—passed away in the hospital in Madisonville, Kentucky. This is the eulogy I delivered at his funeral a few days later (April 28, 2023). Dad was 71 years old. My dad died this past Monday, April 24. The church sent out the news of his death a little before 2pm. That was the second death announcement the church sent out that day. The first death announ...

This essay is the text of a presentation I made on October 2, 2025, at The Light Network Conference, which convened at the Henderson Church of Christ in Henderson, Tennessee. Some of the comments here reflect that context. Other comments have been updated. You ever go to a grocery store for just an item or two, maybe a place like Aldi, where they don’t have a self-checkout lane, and you just have...

I have no experience with speaking in tongues. First of all, though I can read a few languages for academic purposes, I speak only a single language. (I’m not going to tell you which one; you’ll just have to guess.) Secondly, the phenomenon known today as “speaking in tongues” and practiced—encouraged—among charismatic Christians is something completely foreign to me. I’ve never done it and I’ve n...

Programming Notes Voiceover . I suppose you have noticed that I have started recording voiceovers for these Substack essays. I’ve been doing it for a while now—months. You can find the voiceover at the top of the page. It’s not AI voice reading to you; it’s my own voice. I’m doing it myself. Podcast . The voiceovers for these Substacks essays are now also hosted on their own podcast, called Script...

Alexei Navalny died on February 16, 2024, and a few days later (Feb 21) I spoke briefly about him in a chapel service at Heritage Christian University. If you listen to that speech (see the video here ), you’ll find that I really didn’t know much about Navalny at the time, just what had been widely reported. His memoir, Patriot , was published a few months later, and I eagerly read it. By the way,...