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Daily Bible Study

October 26, 2025 Bible Study — The Transfiguration Connects Jesus’ Imminent Death with the Exodus from Egypt

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 9.

As I was reading today’s passage I noticed something interesting in the account of the transfiguration.  Luke says that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah talked about Jesus’ “departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”  The NIV has a translator’s footnote by the word, departure.  That footnote says that the Greek word used there is “exodus”.  I think that Luke is intentionally connecting Jesus’ Crucifixion, and later Ascension, to the Israelite Exodus from Egypt.  In the Exodus God redeemed the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt by His mighty power.  In the same way, with Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, God redeemed all mankind from slavery to sin and death.  If nothing else, Luke is foreshadowing the Last Supper and how Jesus there connected His Crucifixion to the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb.  However, I think there is more to the connection Luke is making to the Exodus than just that.  At the very least, there is a connection between the transformation of Jesus appearance and Moses’ need to wear a veil over his face after communing with God.  In Exodus, it was just Moses’ face which shone unbearably bright from the glory of God, here Luke describes everything about Jesus as shining unbearably bright, even His clothing.  I want to give some more thought about the connection Luke is making between Jesus’ death and resurrection and the Israelite exodus from Egypt.  Perhaps, I will have more insight into that connection the next time I write on the Transfiguration.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Daily Bible Study

October 25, 2025 Bible Study — The People Were Frightened by Seeing the Man Dressed and in His Right Mind

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 8.

Today’s passage begins with Luke telling us that Jesus travelled around with the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases.  He lists three women and then says “and many others”.  First, it is not clear to me if the “many others” was intended to indicate many other women, or many other men and women.  In any case, I am convinced that when Luke writes that “These women were helping to support them out of their own means,” he was saying that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna were providing financial support for Jesus’ ministry.  Luke may have intended to say that many other women provided financial support to Jesus’ ministry, but he definitively says that these three women did.

Further on in this passage we come to the account of Jesus casting the demons named Legion out of the man from the region of the Gerasenes.  Now there is an interesting part of this story which I rarely hear anyone comment on, and I have not written about it in the many years I have been writing this blog.  After the herd of pigs rushed into the lake and drowned the pig herders rushed into town and told people what had happened.  This led the people of town to come out and see what happened.  Which brings us to the interesting part.  When the people saw the man who had been demon-possessed sitting and Jesus’ feet dressed and in his right mind, they were afraid.  They weren’t frightened by hearing about the demons coming out of the man and causing the pigs to kill themselves.  No, they were frightened by seeing the man dressed and in his right mind.  They were even more frightened after those who had witnessed the man be cured told them how that happened (as an aside, I find it interesting how Luke refers to the people out of whom demons had been driven as being cured).  The people from town weren’t frightened by the pigs stampeding into the lake, that was just a curiosity to be checked out.  They were so frightened by the fact that a demon-possessed man was cured that they asked Jesus to leave the area.

Finally, I want to look at just one piece of the story about Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead.  After raising her, Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat.  When I have heard this commented on, the commenter either says that this was because she needed food after her illness, or, that it was because her appetite had returned after Jesus healed her.    However, I was reminded of how Jesus made a point of eating in front of His disciples after He was raised from the dead.  I think Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat as a confirmation to them that she was alive.  Ghosts and spirits do not eat.  When the girl’s parents saw their daughter eat, they knew that she was indeed alive.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Daily Bible Study

October 24, 2025 Bible Study — He Who Was Forgiven Little, Loves Little. Do We Realize How Deep Our Debt Really Was?

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 6-7.

Today’s passage begins with two incidents related to what Jesus taught about the Sabbath.  At the end of the first incident Jesus declares Himself Lord of the Sabbath.  In the second incident, Jesus asks if it is lawful to do good, or to do evil, on the Sabbath.  This is clearly a rhetorical question, because Jesus immediately, without waiting for an answer, restored the man’s hand.  I want to make note that the way Luke presents these two incidents indicates that he wants us to understand that he is not presenting the material necessarily chronological order, that these two incidents did not happen right after the other.  We need to keep this in mind as we read all of the Gospel of Luke–for the most part, events described earlier in his account occurred before events described later, but Luke makes it clear that sometimes an event is related out of chronological order for the sake of communicating the lesson more clearly.

This passage also makes clear that Jesus had many more than twelve disciples.  First, Luke makes a point that Jesus selected twelve apostles out of His many disciples after a night of prayer.  That right there is an important example for us to keep in mind.  Jesus, even though He was God, spent a night in prayer before selecting the twelve whom He set aside as His special messengers to the world.  After describing Jesus selecting the Twelve, Luke begins his account of Jesus’ central sermon (equivalent to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount) by telling us that Jesus stood on a level place surrounded by a large crowd of His disciples, and a great number of other people.

Finally I want to touch on a theme which pervades all of Jesus’ ministry, but which Luke highlights in this sermon.  It is really made of two parts.  first, love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.  Second, do good things for those who can’t and/or won’t return the favor.  In fact, we should especially do good things for those who will hold us in a negative light even after we have done them a good turn.  Related to that is what Jesus tells Simon the Pharisee after the “sinful” woman anointed Him, “whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.”  Do we think of ourselves as having been forgiven little?  Or, do we realize how deep our debt really was?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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October 23, 2025 Bible Study –Keeping the Focus on God While Doing His Work

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 4-5.

Every time I read about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, I am reminded of the temptations which any mission can fall into.  The first temptation which we can fall into is that of putting all of our effort into meeting the physical needs of the poorest in our society.  There is real need there, and we should strive to help, but if we fail to remember that teaching people the word of God is just as important as seeing that they are fed, we fail to make the world a better place.  We just make those we “aid” dependent on us.  The second temptation is to do whatever it takes to make change, to make a deal with those who do not honor God to create rules to make things better.  Ultimately, if we turn our focus from worshiping God to making this world a better place, we end up doing neither.  The third temptation is to put all of our attention on the power of God and not doing the hard work of doing His will.  Those who fall for this temptation expect God to solve all of their problems rather than working to make the world a better place.  We need to work to provide for the physical needs of ourselves and others, not just count on God to provide.  We need to point out, and refuse to participate in, systems which victimize people, seeking that they be fixed.  While we must rely on God, we cannot just sit back and expect God to just miraculously make things better when we could have done something.  Jesus’ temptations in this passage are a reminder that we need to keep our focus on God without expecting that we do not need to do anything.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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October 22, 2025 Bible Study — God’s Messengers Begin by Calming Our Fears

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 2-3.

When the angel appeared to the shepherds, the first thing it said was “Do not be afraid.”  I make note of that because every time we see an account of an angel appearing to a person to bring them revelation, one of the first things it does is tell them some variation of that.  This allows us to realize that if someone experiences a supernatural visitation where the visitor does not immediately attempt to calm their fears, that visitor is either bringing a warning to the one they are visiting, or the visitor is not from God.  I also want to write about something I often think about when I read the accounts of Jesus’ birth.  The angels did not appear to the priests in the temple, or courtiers in Herod’s court.  I have seen different things about how shepherds were viewed in First Century society, but at best they were not thought of highly.  I think they were probably comparable to janitors and trash collectors .  The relatively low social standing of the shepherds would have contributed to the amazement felt by those who heard their account of angels appearing to them.  However, there is another aspect of how I think people likely viewed shepherds which would also have contributed to that amazement: shepherds were not likely viewed as people who spent much time and thought on God.  Those who rose up to proclaim themselves Messiah did not emerge from among those like the shepherds.  Those who emerged to call for social change, or religious reformation, did not come from among shepherds and those like them.  God chose to reveal His incarnation to the “working class”, not the intellectual class, from whom human movements to transform society always emerge.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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October 21, 2025 Bible Study — I Am the Lord’s Servant

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 1.

I am going to be all over the place a bit today.  I am hoping that as I write about the things which seemed noteworthy as I read today a theme will emerge tying them together.  The first thing I thought about when I read today’s passage is that we do not know if Mary became pregnant with Jesus immediately after Gabriel appeared to her, or if there was some time between Gabriel’s appearance to her and the beginning of her pregnancy.  What made me notice this was the way in which Luke tells us that John the Baptist in the womb responded to Mary’s arrival to visit Elizabeth.  Luke tells us that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb.  I would not have a problem if something were to emerge which indicated that Mary became pregnant with Jesus after she returned home from her time with Elizabeth.  The next thing I thought about was that at the end of the passage it tells us that John the Baptist lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly in Israel.  This aligns with my understanding that John emerged as a prophet from among one of the groups associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The groups associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls appear to have sought to turn to God by withdrawing from the world.  John the Baptist saw the need to call the entire people of Israel to repent and turn to God.  We might even say that the groups from which John the Baptist emerged had been preserving faithful Judaism until it was time for John to announce Jesus coming.  All of the people discussed in today’s passage, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and John the Baptist, lived their lives according to what Mary said in response to Gabriel’s message to her (with Zechariah taking a little time to process God’s message before doing so): “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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October 20, 2025 Bible Study — Judas Thought He Knew Better Than Jesus

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 14-16.

Mark seems to suggest here that Judas chose to betray Jesus in response to how Jesus responded to the woman anointing Him with perfume.  Perhaps it appears that way to me because I want to know why Judas betrayed Him.  Maybe more importantly, I noticed that Mark makes the point that Judas Iscariot is one of the Twelve.  I take this as a warning that we should be careful about what we hear from even the most highly placed people.  This brings me to the way Mark recounts how Jesus sent out two disciples to find the room where He would celebrate the Passover Feast with His disciples.  Mark’s account says that “two disciples” went and prepared the Passover Feast and that Jesus and the Twelve arrived in the evening after the feast was prepared.  An independent reading of Mark’s account would lead one to believe that these two disciples were not part of the Twelve (despite Luke explicitly telling us that they were Peter and John).  This is not because Mark is contradicting Luke.  Rather, Mark wants us to be aware that Jesus had many disciples aside from the Twelve, but the Twelve were His closest disciples.  And that Judas was one of these twelve closest to Him.  Judas was not just one of Jesus’ disciples.  He was one of those whom Jesus had sent out with the power to cast out demons.  As close to Jesus as Judas had been, as much as Judas had seen Jesus’ power, he still chose his own course and betrayed Jesus.  Judas thought he knew better than Jesus what Jesus should do.  The more I think about it, the more I believe that Mark intended to imply that Judas betrayed Jesus at least in part because of the way Jesus responded to the woman anointing His head with perfume.  Judas betrayed Jesus because he did not approve of the way Jesus was carrying out His ministry.  I don’t know if Judas was trying to force Jesus’ hand, to force Him to do what Judas thought was the right thing.  Or, if Judas betrayed Jesus because he believed that Jesus was betraying His calling.  In either case, I am convinced that Judas betrayed Jesus because he thought he knew better what God was calling Jesus to do.  We need to be careful we do not make the same mistake.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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October 19, 2025 Bible Study — Give to God What is God’s

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 12-13.

I have always loved the accounts of the Pharisees asking Jesus if it was lawful to pay tax to Caesar.  In response to their question, Jesus asked to see a denarius (the coin used to pay the tax).  When they produced one, He asked them whose image was on it.  When they replied (accurately) that it had Caesar’s image on it, Jesus told them to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s, a clear reference to the Genesis Creation account where God said that He made man in His own image.  Jesus’ message here was that we should give money which has no intrinsic value and is produced by the government back to the government when it asks, but we should give our selves, which has eternal value, to God who created it.

Today, I am equally taken with Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, whose question on marriage in the after life immediately follows that of the Pharisees.  What struck me about Jesus’ answer is that it gives the model of the appropriate response to those who question our basic faith.  Paraphrasing Jesus said, “Your question is fundamentally flawed because you neither know the Scriptures nor the power of God.”  This approach is the answer to many who argue for false ideas about God.  Carefully read the Scripture and put your faith in an all-powerful God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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October 18, 2025 Bible Study –Thoughts on Divorce

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 10-11.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce, He asked them what Moses had commanded concerning divorce.  The Pharisees answered that Moses allowed a man to write a woman a certificate of divorce and send her away, referring to Deuteronomy 24:1-4.  The implication being that Moses had given that as a command on how to divorce.  However, when we read the passage it says, “If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,…”  Notice that Moses does not say it is OK to do so, he just issues a command concerning what happens afterwards under certain circumstances.  Which means that Jesus is NOT superseding (or, as the Muslims like to say, abrogating) the Law of Moses with His command concerning divorce.  So, Jesus is exactly correct, Moses was making allowance for something he knew was going to happen (perhaps it would be more accurate to say that God was making allowance for something that was going to happen).  In any case, looking at both what Jesus said about divorce, and what God commanded through Moses, gives us insight into how the Church today should deal with divorce.  It happens, but it is wrong and those who have joined themselves to Christ should make every effort to avoid the ending of their marriage.   There is forgiveness for those who divorce, but it would be better if they had remained married.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

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October 17, 2025 Bible Study –If We Give Up Our Heart to Gain Our Heart’s Desire, We Have Gained Nothing

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 8-9.

When Jesus told the crowds (and His disciples) that anyone who wants to be His disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him, they did not yet understand that He would die on a cross.  Even His disciples did not yet comprehend that He would die.  On the other hand, they had a much better understanding about the horrors of crucifixion than we do.  We need to understand what Jesus is saying here.  We need to be willing to suffer in order to follow Jesus.  An author of fiction whose books I enjoy had one of her characters create a paraphrase of what Jesus says about gaining the world and losing our soul which sheds light on what Jesus said here.  The character said, “There is no value in gaining your heart’s desire if you have to give up your heart in the process.”  While there is much more to what Jesus says here, that statement gave me new insight into the meaning of what Jesus says here.  If we are willing to do whatever it takes to get things, or to experience pleasure, we will allow that which makes us to be destroyed and we will become empty shells.  On the other hand, if we are willing to sacrifice everything we are in order to make the world a better place for others, we will become that which death cannot destroy.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus