Dr Paul Allen

Substitution is always the basis of animal sacrifice . Hence, if a life was to be spared, a life had to be forfeited, and when the animal was sacrificed, ‘the life of the flesh is in the blood’, Lev. 17:11. Therefore, in those days, animal blood was a divine gift for the purpose of sacrifice only: ‘I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul’, v. 11. The person who treated animal blood as a common, everyday thing, and dared to eat it would be cut off, ‘from among his people’, v. 10. Also, careless treatment of animal blood in other situations would lead to the person having to ‘bear his iniquity’, v. 16. The word atonement occurs once in the King James Version New Testament, where it means just that, ‘at-one-ment’, Rom. 5:11, i.e., reconciliation, through our Lord Jesus Christ . Atonement by blood in the Old Testament only brought a covering of sins to the Israelite, who had brought such a blo...

Alva J. McClain’s book The Greatness of the Kingdom , provides an exhaustive look at the concept of “the kingdom” throughout the entire Bible. When Jesus arrived in Matthew 2:2, he was called “King of the Jews” and in 3:2 his initial message was “repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”, but the people seemed to know what he was talking about. They thought that Jesus was the promised king who would establish a promised kingdom, and nobody stopped him and said “hang on a second! What in the world are you talking about? Kingdom? What kingdom?”. In the gospel of Matthew , the “gospel” that Jesus proclaimed was the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 4:23, 9:35, 24:14). That was the “good news” that Jesus brought to his listeners. What was the kingdom promises in the OT? Do we treat the New Testament separately from the specific kingdom parables in the gospels? The “kingdom” in the Bible isn’t a comprehensive explanation of the concept, but rather simply the term “kingdom”. Thi...

A 13th century book illustration produced in Baghdad by al-Wasiti showing a slave-market in the town of Zabid in Yemen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I. In the Old Testament a. Introduction Under the influence of Roman law , a slave is usually considered to be a person (male or female) owned by another, without rights, and—like any other form of personal property—to be used and disposed of in whatever way the owner may wish. In the ancient biblical East, however, slaves could and did acquire various rights before the law or by custom, and these included ownership (even of other slaves) and the power to conduct business while they were yet under their masters’ control. Slavery is attested from the earliest times throughout the ancient Near East, and owed its existence and perpetuation primarily to economic factors. b. Sources of slaves (i) By capture. Captives, especially prisoners of war, were commonly reduced to slavery (Gn. 14:21, claimed by the king of Sodom; Nu. 31:9; Dt. 20:1...

I. In the Old Testament a. Introduction Under the influence of Roman law, a slave is usually considered to be a person (male or female) owned by another, without rights, and—like any other form of personal property—to be used and disposed of in whatever way the owner may wish. In the ancient biblical East, however, slaves could and did acquire various rights before the law or by custom, and these included ownership (even of other slaves) and the power to conduct business while they were yet under their masters’ control. Slavery is attested from the earliest times throughout the ancient Near East, and owed its existence and perpetuation primarily to economic factors. b. Sources of slaves (i) By capture. Captives, especially prisoners of war, were commonly reduced to slavery (Gn. 14:21, claimed by the king of Sodom; Nu. 31:9; Dt. 20:14; 21:10ff.; Jdg. 5:30; 1 Sa. 4:9 (cf. RSV); 2 Ki. 5:2; 2 Ch. 28:8, 10ff.), a custom that goes back as far as written documents themselves, to rou...