Bammerhab: Bible Explainer

Jesus didn’t swear, or use coarse language. Neither did Paul. But they did use very forceful injunctions to express strong emotions, and the word they used was ophelon . It can be translated as “Oh, How I wish!” …But that’s probably a little too formal for the actual sense of this word, which is just an expression of sheer frustration. In our vulgar age, this role is usually filled by four letter...

Surprising! Remember back in 2020? One day it was normal, the next day everything everywhere was shut down… for two weeks, or so they said. That was pretty sudden huh? Not much warning? In this penultimate church of Revelation, Jesus uses the Greek word tachy and basically tachy means fast, and Jesus uses it ALL over Revelation. In fact he uses this word three times in his very last speech in Reve...

How should a Christian approach imagination? Imagination isn’t a virtue or a vice, it’s just the standard equipment of all humankind, made in God’s image. We have imagination because God has imagination. But while His imaginations are always good, ours aren’t. Our creativity can do wonderful things and it can also do terrible things. But the first person filled with the Holy Spirit in the bible wa...

The Greek word Gregoron in Revelation 3:2 means “Watch out!” or “Wake Up!”. (It’s also where we get the name Gregory.) This episode is the fifth of seven in a little miniseries about the seven churches that Jesus directly addressed, and Jesus told this church to “Wake up!” This church is Sardis, but Jesus’ words to them apply to every single Christian in the twenty first century also. Why did Jesu...

Yatsar is what a potter does to clay. Yatsar is also what God did to us. Yatsar is a cognate for another Hebrew which means to squeeze, to push, to pressure and to be distressed. This is because the image of formation that yatsar evokes is shaping something like a potter shapes a pot. The potter squishes, squeezes, pushes and pressures the clay. I will bet that the clay if it could talk would say...

This episode is the midpoint of the miniseries about the seven churches that Jesus directly addressed. And this one gets heavy, and it is longest letter, the heaviest letter to a tiny little church that wasn’t in a major city at all. It was in the middle of the seven, in the middle of a path to two greater cities, and perhaps even in the… Middle Ages? But that’s a bit cryptic so we’ll get to that...

Henry Smith wrote the song “ Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart ” in 1978. But he only sang it at his local church in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife Cindy. So, understandably, they were both utterly stunned when they later heard their song years later as a chart topping hit. The hymn had gone viral without them knowing how. Still to this day, it’s not quite clear how the song travelled and wh...

Jesus told the ancient church at Pergamum that they were living right next to Satan’s throne. Then Jesus said he had a sword ready for battle… but maybe not quite in the way you’d expect! This episode continues the miniseries about the seven churches that Jesus directly addressed. Remember, these words to the seven churches are important because this is the biggest chunk of direct speech that Jesu...

Jared Luttjeboer , is the creator of The Church History Project which is a deep dive into church history but with a unique “epic cinematic” feel where Jared explains to us all about the past through making it into the epic story that it really was. So as a church history nerd and past filmmaker, of course Jared and I talk all about that! In addition, Jared chose Malachi 3:6, and we begin our chat...

Jesus promised the ancient church at Smyrna both persecution and peace. He promised the same thing to all believers, actually… But how does that work? This episode continues the miniseries about the seven churches that Jesus directly addressed. Remember, these words to the seven churches are important because this is the biggest chunk of direct speech that Jesus directs to his church anywhere in t...

Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:18 describes the church as a body with lots of different parts. These parts are not supposed to be the same, as Paul makes clear using an extended joke. Can a foot see? Can a hand hear? Can an eye smell? Well, duh, obviously not. The same thing goes for the body of Christ. We’re a part of the body if we’re connected vitally to the head, and the head is Christ. That’s what...

Season five has finally arrived! This episode also kickstarts a miniseries within season five about the seven churches of Revelation. Jesus said a lot to his disciples during his ministry, and they recorded some of it in the gospels. But, technically speaking, Jesus was very clear that he was first sent to the lost sheep of Israel, and so his ministry was primarily focused on that mission. Yes, Je...

What comfort can God offer against the inevitable collapse of all great men and great movements? Qum that’s what. Because qum can mean something that endures forever, but endures can also be translated as fulfills, stands, establishes, confirms or arises. Great trees rise up, and fall. But God rises up, and doesn’t fall. Great movements, great men, rise up and have great moments, but then they alw...

The spiritual world abhors a vacuum. That means if you reject Christ, you don’t revert back to being where you were as a pre-Christian, no, you actually get seven times worse. Jesus warns us of this in Luke 11:26. For example, think of Kanye. You see, dark spirits are parasites. But unlike a tick, these invaders have intelligence, and once removed they are angry, uncomfortable, restless and hungry...

Paul says in Romans 8:28 that everything will work out for good for the believer. Agathon means good in Greek. It’s a root word, an ancient word with no certain etymology. It just means good. I guess we just all know what good is. But we also all know that all things right now are not good. Things have never been good. So what is Paul talking about here? Thank you to poet Samantha Coté , of THOUGH...

“We Three Kings” is my favorite Christmas carol. However, there weren’t three of them, and they weren’t kings! But yes, this caravan did come from the east and the Greek calls them magoi , or magicians or wizards. But these wizards were not actually wise men, and they aren’t the heroes in the Christmas story but rather a band of ambitious bunglers, who professing to be wise men make a series of fo...

A conversation with portraitist and comic artist Noah Snoke about how to pray from Philippians 4:6-7. Paul tells us to pray with supplication, but supplication is a phrase we don’t use all that often. Supplication sounds pretty elevated. However, in Greek the root word behind supplication means to beg. That’s remarkably un -elevated. We all know what begging is. But Paul doesn’t just tell us to be...

Vengeance is arguably the number one trait of our times. It lives on all sides of the aisle, among old, young and rich and poor. And it is antithetical to Christianity. But why? This episode digs deeper into “ ekdikesis ” (ἐκδίκησις meaning ‘vengeance’) in Romans 12:19. Romans 12:19 - “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I...

[Continuing last week’s conversation with Chase Replogle about how pride is connected to offense.] When Jesus said that the last shall be first and the first shall be last, the concept of ga’on is certainly implied. The “first” would be the proud, those characterized by ga’on. Ga’on is for those who are exalted, those who grow, those who are lifted up, those who rise up. But isn’t that a goal we a...

A conversation with Chase Replogle about how Jesus handled offense. There’s no way to not get offended. It will happen. We can’t control that part. All we can control is how we respond to that inevitable offense. Satan has ensured there will be a trap of offense out there with our name on it. Offense is one of the fews thing that Jesus guarantees. He doesn’t say if, but when you are offended. And...

You plant the seed. You let it grow. Then you take the fruit. That’s the normal way of things. It was just common sense. In fact, Jesus quotes an old Greek saying: “There’s still four months to the harvest!” The implication is just plant, then wait. Things don’t happen immediately. Rome wasn’t built in a day. But wait, Jesus says not so fast. The natural rules don’t always apply. Not in certain se...

So much of the ancient world was explicitly built to avoid shame. So much of the modern world is all about people pleasing to avoid shame or rejection. That makes sense as shame is one of the most damaging things a person can endure. Psychologically, shame warps the mind. We hide our shame constantly. Jesus was shamed in his death, shamed in his birth, but he scorned the shame. Why? And how do we...

Yom Kippur begins on October 1st in 2025, but what is it all about? Covering. God’s covering for us. At the beginning of history, Adam hid, which was silly if you think about it. Adam knew that God created the world, and God created his heart and his mind and none of that could be hidden behind a tree trunk. The first and worst betrayal in human history could not be covered by a fig leaf. Still Ad...

We all want to be new. We all want the world to be new. But we take many radically different paths toward that renewal. Yet, Paul says Jesus is the only path for real personal renewal. But when Paul speaks of renewal, he’s not saying to revert back to what your mind was like as a kid when it was young and new. He’s saying you’re gonna get a whole new different kind of thinking, a peace that’s new,...

Ancient Israelites used alarms for the same reason you set an alarm on your cell phone, to wake up, or to remember something or to be alerted to a danger. So the Feast of Trumpets was all about blowing shofars to wake the people up for the fall feasts, to remember, to reflect and to be ready. But beyond that, the Feast of Trumpets is also connected to ancient Jewish wedding customs and also all th...