The Mileses

Paul and Olena Miles with Grace Abroad Ministries

independence

A Chiasm Noticed

A ​lot of details stand out when you read the Bible in its original languages. I’ve been reading through James lately, which is a book that has suffered greatly at the hands of English translation (especially toward the end of chapter 2).

I came across a noticeable turning point in Jas 4:6b-7a this morning:

​”God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (ESV)

It would be easy to breeze through this in English and take away something beneficial. But, if we take a look at the Greek, we might notice what we call a “chiastic” structure:
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How to be a better witness

If we are going to take the Great Commission seriously, then we need to know how to witness to unbelievers. Evangelism is a skill that we constantly need to develop, so let’s take a look at Paul’s insight on how to be better witnesses:

Conduct yourself with wisdom toward those who are outside, making use of the opportunity. In order to know how it is proper for you to respond to anyone, always let your doctrine be with grace, having been made savory with salt. (Col 4:5-6)

The command to conduct yourself with wisdom is a tall order. Of course, it is good to be wise all the time, but here Paul is referring to our relationship toward those who are outside, that is, those who are outsiders to the Church, meaning unbelievers.
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What did Ruth really do with Boaz?

When you take an in-depth look at the events in the book of Ruth leading to Ruth and Boaz’s marriage, you come to believe that Boaz might have actually been a victim of sexual assault very similar to date rape. This is a rather harsh accusation to make blindly, so let’s take a look at the evidence. The argument begins in an unlikely place: the conflict between Saul and David.

When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats’ Rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.'” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. (1 Samuel 24:1-4 ESV)

​Now, where it says, “and Saul went in to relieve himself,” the Hebrew is a bit more graphic. More literally translated, it would say, “and Saul went in to cover his feet.” What does that mean? Well, first of all, the word, “foot,” can be confusing. In Russian, we have the word, noga, which can mean the entire leg. There is much controversy about how they nailed Christ to the cross, because the Greek word for “hand” can also include the wrist and above. Hebrew has one word, kârâ‛, which apparently comes from a primitive root meaning “to bend.” This kârâ‛ is said to mean from the knee down. But, the body part that Saul covers is the regel.
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Have You Broken the 10 Commandments?

The following blog post is a verbatim transcription of a conversation between two people, whom we will call Jack and Joe in order to protect their identity, even though they and this conversation are completely fictional:
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Some thoughts on the word, “Justify”

There are some questions we can ask ourselves every time we see the word, “justify,” in the Bible.​ Let’s look at these questions and see how they affect our understanding of a famous passage that may seem to contradict the Gospel.
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Hocus Pocus Today

‘Tis the season for spooky Halloween movies! My favorite Halloween movie is Hocus Pocus, which features three witches from the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials who come back to modern day Salem… ok, so maybe 1993 isn’t so modern anymore, but you get the point. The theology is terrible, but it’s a cute Disney movie about witches.
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