November 17, 2023 – Does the Bible Say…?

“Does the Bible say John and Jesus were best friends?”

“In the sixth month of Elizabethʼs pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virginʼs name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. So the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God! Listen: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. And look, your relative Elizabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age – although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month! For nothing will be impossible with God.” So Mary said, “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her…” Luke 1:26-38

One thing we know about John the Baptist is this: he and Jesus were cousins. As such, since families in the first century Palestine lived together in clans, we can assume that John and Jesus would have spent a lot of time together as children. They would have played together — wandered the hills of Palestine together — talked about G-d together. Perhaps they argued about how we come to know G-d -what a relationship with G-d should really look like. Maybe they even argued about how a prophet or itinerant preacher should dress. So yes, I think we can assume they were at least good friends, not just cousins.

John and Jesus were born six months apart. In essence, they were the same age. As such, they would have gone through major life experiences at about the same time. Jesus was about thirty years old when the Gospels begin to report his ministry. So, we have very little information about most of Jesus’ and John’s lives. Perhaps John and Jesus did spend much of that time growing up together. Perhaps he would be able to tell us things about Jesus — things like “Did he tell jokes?” “Was he funny?” “What was it like to see the Holy Spirit descend into him?”

One of the weaknesses of the Gospels (this is just my opinion) is they leave out so much of Jesus’ day to day life — outside of the teachings, healings and other ministries. John would be able to fill in a lot of those details. So the Bible makes it clear they were relatives, but we have to wonder: were they truly friends?

Pastor Dave

November 16, 2023 – Does the Bible Say…?

“Does the Bible say Eve ate an apple?”

“Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ʻYou must not eat from any tree of the orchardʼ?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ʻYou must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.ʼ” The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Genesis 3:1-7

Many people wonder if Adam and Eve really existed. Are Adam and Eve just characters created by our ancestors to voice questions about our origins? That is just one of the many, many different questions we might ask. For example, I might ask Adam or Eve: “What was the Garden of Eve really like?” Or, “What was it really like to be in the presence of G-d?” But this is the one question, if permitted, I would ask Eve: “What kind of fruit was on the tree?”

Now, I realize this is not a very probing question. But look, the kind of fruit that grew on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is, as I mentioned before, hotly debated. For many, many years, the fruit was depicted as an apple. In fact, most people, if you ask them, they will tell you that the Bible says it was an apple. The Bible does not say that. Some commentators suggest the fruit was figs, since they made loin cloths for themselves out of fig leaves. Others suggest the tree was not only a fruit tree with good tasting fruit, but it was a fruit tree that was “pleasing to the eye”. That would suggest a particular kind of tree, or leaf, or trunk. The fruit would have had to have been good smelling, as well as good feeling and good tasting. Why? Well, if once Adam and Eve ate the fruit, then they could see, after they ate the fruit their eyes were opened, then it had to have enticed their other senses for it to be something they would eat.

To me, THE question to ask Eve is what kind of fruit was it that the serpent told her to eat. It is the question of the Bible — for out of the action of eating it, paradise was lost, and humanity was changed forever. That is the question I would ask Eve. What question would you ask?

Pastor Dave