So, let's meet up, kind of...
We've already mentioned a few things about ourselves but we were asked for more. So here we are. We are a Christian of more than forty years of Christian living and study in God's word. In addition to God's wonderful word we are students of both the languages of the Bible and the earliest languages it was translated into such as Gothic and Coptic because those early versions of God's Word can give us insight into how those early Christians understood the Greek and Hebrew in their day. Such insight includes, for example, that John 1:1 was understood as "In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God and the Word was a god." (Both Sahidic and Bohairic Coptic, though, the latest scholars are trying to change that asserting the same "qualitative" argument for the indefinite article taken strait from Greek scholars)
We are a natural polyglot and speak a number of modern languages as well as the biblical. As such, we came to the conclusion years ago that the best way to understand the Bible is to learn what we can about the culture God picked to produce it, the Hebrew culture, in order to put ourselves into the shoes of those initially targeted by our heavenly father as recipients of his word and the Gospel. That effort has resulted in dividends as far as understanding the Bible.
For the part which was asked for, our fellowship is with the Bible Student Movement and we have no particular partiality to any one group in the movement. We do, however, fellowship with two of the more conservative classes and have worked to help a number of the more liberal in their international work. The reason we lean to the right is because most of the time we find that the founder of the movement (not to be confused with the Jehovah's Witnesses), Charles Taze Russell, wrote correctly about biblical issues most of time doing the best he could in an era where the understanding of Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic was still pretty much in its infancy with little beyond the Bible itself in the way of texts to help in understanding it available to Western scholars. Now, we have so much more to help us in our quest thanks to God!
What that means is that we reserve the right to disagree with what Russell wrote where we understand Greek and Hebrew better based on the plethora of material which has come to the fore, or where subsequent events demand an adjustment in our views as biblical prophecy plays out in God's way and not Russell's or ours. Our quest is for truth and insight into the Word of God that we may complete our race successfully and take our place in the Bride of Christ. This blog is a part of our ministry because we suffer from a very rare endocrine disorder which has pretty much isolated me to my house and you can find out more about it HERE. It is not about us, it is about our desire that all will in some way be helped by what time and reflection has helped us to see.
We are preparing a book based on some of the material we've already posted and are translating another book, the third volume in Bro. Russell's Studies in the Scriptures into Spanish. So our Father above has kept us filled and busy in his service.
So, there you have it, my readers, friends and Brethren. Up to this point we have let the articles stand on their own. Now you have the face behind the teaching.
Shalom!
