Dr Paul Allen

Children, and, sadly, many adults have the idea that history is boring, far too full of dates and politics to be of any practical use. After all, what point is there to knowing about the Peloponnesian Wars or whether Christopher Columbus really discovered America first? What many of us miss in history is the people. Each of those historical figures lived their lives as we do: birth, growing up, career, death, and all with a mixture of joy and sadness. And each of those lives had an impact on the world around them. Some are lost in the mists of time, while others were the movers and shakers of world events. Those people and their stories are what history is all about. Learn about the people, and the stories of history come together. Having said all that, why do we have to introduce children to church history? Surely there are more important things they need to learn first. History can wait. But can it? As Christians, we have duty to our children to teach them about their heritage as par...

History’s Most Important Book When it comes to books, none is more famous than the Bible. It’s the most sold, translated, and arguably the most influential book in history. As a result, it occupies a vaulted place in our shared cultural conscience. When American presidents want to raise their rhetoric or filmmakers want to add gravitas, they reach for a biblical reference. Even today, as the Bible’s cultural authority waxes in the West, everyone knows something about the Bible. As with anything of historical importance, the Bible has accumulated its share of mythical distortions in the popular mind. Many of these swirl around its origins. Maybe this is because the Bible’s origins span such a long time or our culture is primed to distrust authority. Whatever the cause, these are five myths inside and outside the church about the history of history’s most important book. Myth #1: The books were chosen by a church council. This first myth may originate as far back as the 17th century, but...

Because Christianity is built upon certain historical events, discussions about Scripture’s historical truthfulness are constant. Regarding Genesis, such discussions revolve around several issues, including the flood and patriarchal narratives. People want to know, “Did a global flood actually happen? Did the patriarchs really exist?” Frustratingly, these discussions are complicated by the lack of explicit evidence from outside the Bible that could serve as historical verification. Was Joseph in Egypt? When it comes to the account of Joseph, the difficulties are predictable. Indeed, the biblical account contains numerous details that align with historical realities of Middle and New Kingdom Egypt, but there is nothing definitive in the historical or archaeological record that verifies Joseph or his exploits in Egypt. Yet the Joseph narrative is also somewhat unique . The genre of this narrative—with its carefully crafted sequence, plot shifts, characterization, and other features—has e...

The Bible is considered the best-selling book in history. Estimates say some five billion copies have been sold. It is thought to be the most translated and distributed book in the world. Bibles have been burned, smuggled, and dipped in blood. It’s safe to say that no other book has drawn more comment and controversy than the Bible. The Bible contains a collection of 66 books (39 Old Testament , 27 New Testament ) originally written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) over a period of about 1600 years through the instrumentation of some 40 different writes, from around the Mediterranean region. But, what is the Bible exactly? Who was to say that it was authoritative? How do we know it, and nothing else, is the word of God as it says? What about other supposed lost or hidden books not included in the Bible but should have been? Who decided what should be in the Bible? Were there mistakes and errors in it? If so, how could I know? What about the claim that it’s been ...

BIBLE HISTORY In the centuries following the Babylonian Exile, Aramaic-speaking Jews became increasingly less able to understand the Biblical Hebrew of the Old Testament . Thus the synagogue reading of the Hebrew Scriptures was accompanied by an oral paraphrase in Aramaic (cf. Neh. 8:8). These translations or Targums included explanatory material and reinterpretations in light of contemporary conditions and reflect the later Jewish tendency to avoid anthropomorphic representations of God as well as the divine name itself.  Many Targums developed in different settings for the various parts of the Old Testament. The most important are the Palestinian Targum (which never had a single authoritative text), which reflects the spoken Aramaic of Jesus’ time; the Fragment Targum or Targum Jerusalem II and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan; and the official synagogue Targums, Targum Onkelos for the Pentateuch and Targum Jonathan for the Prophets, both of which originated in Palestine but ...