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I must be PURE GOLD!!

Just as a point of information: Andrews University is in the process of publishing a 2-book commentary on the Bible. The first book is on the Old Testament, and it runs 1,158 pages in length. The normal price for it is $50. However, it has sold for $35. The second book on the New Testament, is not yet off the press.

? Promise Come forth as Gold Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Good one BlessedMan!!

Old Morris Weisenstein had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed old Morris to hear 100%. Morris went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Mr. Weisenstein, your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again." To which Morris said, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times!"

A man was stopped at a stop sign when another car drove up and hit him from behind. The man flew forward in his seat, hitting his mouth on his steering wheel. The driver in back ran up to him and asked "You Ok?" "No, I hit the steering wheel , and I think all of my teeth are broken." "Oh, no problem. I'll be right back." And he raced back to his car and brought up a briefcase full of false teeth. The gentleman tried them all on until he found the perfect fit. "Those gonna be OK?" "Yes, thanks! They fit great! You a dentist? "No. I'm a mortician."

I love the Anchor Bible, and also like the Interpreters Bible (a bit liberal but good sources) and the New International Commentaries (a bit conservative, but again good sources.) Also, depending on the book there are interesting single volumes. I just finished reading "Paul among the Ecologists" a commentary on Romans by Sigve Tonstad. It was outstanding. Currently reading Tonstad's commentary on Revelation. Have not started yet but I also bought his commentary on Job. Dr. Tonstad is a professor at Loma Linda University. I am shocked as to how good his commentaries are!!! In the 1980s the church had spent money on some good in depth studies including new commentaries (paperbacks). I was able to get a couple of them, but was poor at the time. They were fantastic but sadly the church was having people buy their more superficial books and not the deep study books and had to stop (Yes, that is what the church complained about in our magazines in an appeal to encourage members to buy the deep study books). If you can find some of them at used book sales they are well worth your time and money and please let me know as I'd love to get more. In the 1960s there was also a fantastic commentary on the book of Revelation titled "The time of the End" by George McCready Price. (You can read it online). If you can mix Price's book, and get a hold of recordings from the "Last Day Events" seminar at the 1976 Southern New England Campmeeting, get Richard Nies "Last Day events" Sigve Tonstad's commentary on Revelation, and a Lutheran, Craig Koester commentary (in the anchor Bible series) and/or Koester's lectures on Revelation on the great courses program, between the 5 sources (Price, Wood/Southern New England Campmeeting, Nies, Tonstad and Koester) you would find fantastic information on Revelation. (and they also correct each other, for example Dr. Nies took the chapter saying that the plagues will fall in a day and later an hour" as prophetic time and that Satan wanted to have a year, but will only have two weeks, while Wood points out that in the culture the phrases "In a day" "In an hour" simply means a short time. Tonstad points out where he disagrees with Koester and so far I've sided more with Tonstad on those points.) I would love to get these 5 books into every Adventist home (as well as some others that are not Revelation, namely John Bright's a history of Israel, Aharoni's The Land of The Bible, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, Henri Frankfort and others Before Philosophy and the works by Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Heschel has a commentary on the Prophets which is outstanding). While these are not Adventists, outside of the Anchor Bible, some authors of commentaries that I find impressive are Eric and Carol Meyers, and Ellen Davis. Now a rule of thumb that they taught us at both Atlantic Union College and Andrews University, as well as the Jerusalem Center for Biblical studies is that the day a commentary is printed that it is about 30 years out of date. They recommended this higharchy for Bible study: 1. Read the text. 2. Use concordances to look up which Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek word is used and other texts that use the same word. 3. Theological Word books that look at the words in different texts (and look in journals for new discoveries of the words in other ancient writings to get a better picture as to how the word is used). 4. Histories and geographies such as Bright's History of Israel, Aharoni's The Land of the Bible and MacMillan Bible Atlas. Once you read these you can better judge what you read in commentaries and can teach a freshman level college class on the Bible. 5. Classic archaeology and history books outside of the ones listed in #4, such as by people like Albright, Frankfort (PS: Frankfort's book "before Philosophy" can help us to understand 1844) 6. Journals (can be pricey but where the information that in about 30 years will make it into a commentary are being introduced and discussed) then at level 7 comes the commentaries. Level 8 are the less scholarly books. While this is not a commentary as such, you can also find fantastic information from Dr. Jim Fleming from Biblical Resources LLC and Biblical History Center in La Grange GA. Go to Biblical Resources LLC and look at his Seminar Notebooks. I hope this helps!

? Promise Zion shall be redeemed Isaiah 1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. Happy Sabbath!!

A large two-engine train was crossing New York and at the helm was a train engineer who had recently moved from Israel – Itzik Hadari. After they had gone some distance, one of the engines broke down. "No problem," Itzik said and carried on at half power. Farther on down the line, the other engine broke down and the train came to a standstill. Itzik decided he should inform the passengers about why the train had stopped, and made the following announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."

I have a Strong's/Smith Bible Dictionary combo book I bought on Amazon. It has 1177 pages total. The print is almost microscopic. You have to turn your head sideways and squint to see it.