Updated American Standard Version
Giving Bible readers what God said not what translators think God meant
Examine Scriptures often misunderstood, clarifying context, grammar, audience, historical setting, translation issues, and doctrine for accurate biblical interpretation and application.
The Holy Spirit is called by a number of different titles. They include the “Spirit of Jesus Christ,” the “Spirit of Jesus,” and “the Spirit of the Son.”
Peter’s readers have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father (1:2). The word foreknowledge is a compound word meaning to know beforehand. One of the attributes of God is His omniscience, His complete knowledge of the world and time.
Paul expressed a promise for those women who showed obedience, but few verses have caused such vexing problems for interpreters.
Deuteronomy 14:21 Updated American Standard Version (UASV) 21 “You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the sojourner who is inside your gates, and he may eat it, or it may be sold to a foreigner. For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
However, what happens if and when we do commit sin? Have we tried in vain to be holy? Do we start all the way back at the beginning and lose the spiritual ground we’ve gained?
The objective of the interpreter is to get at what the author meant by the words that he used. Every verse only has one meaning, and that is what the author meant.
“And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name,’” are the words that came to the apostle Paul when he converted. (Acts 22:16, UASV) Does this show that the sins of Paul were forgiven by being baptized? Did baptism by immersion wash away Paul’s sins? Did Peter in Acts 2:38 declare that baptism was necessary for salvation?
Ephesians 5:18 doesn’t forbid alcohol; it forbids drunkenness. The Bible permits moderate drinking but commands Christians to live wisely and Spirit-filled lives.
1 John 5:14–15 doesn’t promise everything we ask; it promises God hears us if we ask according to His will. Prayer aligns us to His purposes, not ours.
Why did the resurrected Jesus Christ invite Thomas to touch him yet he had stopped Mary Magdalene from doing so earlier? Mary Magdalene was a close friend, why would Jesus say that to her? "This verse belongs to a handful of the most difficult passages in the New Testament." - D. A. Carson
