Notes from Aland's Text of the NT

There are 5400 extant Greek NT, not including quotations from the Church Fathers.

Uncial: a style of orthography characterized by somewhat rounded capital letters; found especially in Greek and Latin manuscripts of the 4th to 8th centuries

Lectionary: A schedule of readings from Holy Scripture for use in the weekly liturgy. In current use are both an historic, one-year lectionary with readings that have been in use for centuries, and a more recently developed three-year lectionary. Use of a lectionary provides the congregation with the opportunity to hear carefully chosen sections from the entire Bible.

Codex: Book like format, as opposed to a scroll

Opisthograph: A manuscript, parchment, or book having writing on both sides of the leaves.

Provenance: Evidence of the history of the ownership of a particular book (eg: auctions records, booksellers' records, book plates, etc.) The book may be important because of who owned it; perhaps a president or important bookseller, collector, royalty, or someone who may be related to the book in some way. Important in establishing the ownership of especially rare items.

Minuscule: a portion of the New Testament

Folio: a book (or manuscript) consisting of large sheets of paper folded in the middle to make two leaves or four pages

Fascicles: Are sections of a book, usually a reference work, that because of its length, is issued in parts so that the information may be made available to the public as soon as possible rather than waiting years or decades to complete the entire work

Minuscule: A New Testament minuscule is a portion of the New Testament

[A New Testament uncial is a copy of a portion of the New Testament in Greek or Latin capital or uncial letters, written on parchment or vellum.

New Testament uncials are distinct from:

* New Testament papyri — written on papyrus and generally more ancient; and

* New Testament minuscules — written in minuscule (small, connected) letters and generally more recent.]

Catholic Letters: James, I and II Peter, I, II, and III John, and Jude

Apostolos: Acts and the Catholic Letters

Stemma: A tree diagram, showing the family relationships among manuscript copies of the same text. One key principle in constructing a stemma is to group manuscripts having the same error or eccentricity in common, as being all descended from the manuscript which first made that error.

Recension: Stem. The process of preparing a family tree or stemma of manuscripts. The first step in traditional stemmatics.

Interpolation: In relation to literature and especially ancient manuscripts, an interpolation is an entry or passage in a text that was not written by the original author. As there are often several generations of copies between an extant copy of an ancient text and the original, each handwritten by different scribes, there is a natural tendency for extraneous material to be inserted into such documents over time.

Interpolations may be inserted as an authentic explanatory note, but may also be included for fraudulent purposes.

Western non-interpolations : Are additions in view of the Wescott-Hort

Palimpsest: a manuscript which has been re-used by scraping off the original text and writing over the top

Free Text: a text dealing w/ the original text in a relatively free manner w/ no suggestion of a program of standardization

Normal Text: Relatively faithful tradition which departs from the its exemplar only occasionally

Strict Text: Differs from exemplar only rarely

Majority Text -The Majority Text is derived from the plurality of all existing Greek manuscripts; but because most of these manuscripts are late medieval manuscripts, there is a family resemblance between the Received Text and the Majority Text.

Byzantine text-type The kind of text found in the majority of medieval manuscripts

Alexandrian text-type the ancient type of text which is exhibited in our oldest available manuscripts

Courtesy of Bible-reasearcher.com

Remember there are no verified separate Western, Casarean, or Jerusalem texts.

Orientals (Hebrew and Islam) = sanctity to the letter; Greeks = Sanctity to the message

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p⁵² 125 A.D. contains John 18:31-33, 37-38

Chester Betty papyri/p^45,46,47:

45 (3^rd Cent) = Gospels and Acts lacunae Matt 20:24 - Acts 17:17;

46 (200 AD) Pauline Letters lacunae 2 Thess, Philemon, and Pastorals

47 (3^rd Cent) Rev. 9:10-17:2 w/ small lacunae.

Bodmer papyri: p^{66, 72, 75}:

66 (200 AD) John1:1 – 14:39 w/ almost no lacunae and the rest in fragments. Sewing almost intact;

72 (3/4^th century) *Jude and 1-2 Peter*. Has relatively undamaged pages

75 (3^rd Century) Luke 3:10 and on w/ few lacunae and John 1:10 – 15:8 w/ few lacunae. Still has its binding and may be exemplar to Codex Vaticanus, thus eliminating the theory of recensions (that revisions were happening in the 4^th century).

100 AD – Didache has the Lord’s Prayer

144 AD- Marcion Canon

170 AD – Muratorian Canon

150AD – Discernible quotes from the Gospels in Justin Martyr

175 A.D. - Tatian's Diatessaron, produced was the most prominent of a number of harmonies of the four Gospels, that is, the material of the four distinct Gospels rewritten as a continuous narrative, resolving conflicting statements and removing duplicated text (see synoptic problem). Only 56 verses in the canonical Gospels do not have a counterpart in the Diatessaron, the bulk of the excluded material comprising the two apparently irreconcilable genealogies of Jesus (one in the Gospel of Matthew and one in the Gospel of Luke), together with the pericope of the adulteress (John 7:53 - 8:11). No significant text was added; but, in order to fit all the canonical material in, Tatian felt free to create his own narrative sequence that departed radically from the succession and order of episodes in every one of the four Gospels. The final work is about 72% the length of the four gospels put together (McFall, 1994). Students of gospel harmonies frequently distinguish between the "textual" tradition - i.e. the sources and transmission for the words and phrases within each pericope; and the "sequence" tradition - i.e. the sources and transmission for the order in which pericopes are presented.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

180 AD – Closure of the Gospel and Pauline corpus

200 AD – Because of the spread of Christianity, there was a need for the translation of the NT and by 250 AD, the church was Latin.

3/4^th Century – No centralized organization of the church, thus you have many varying manuscript traditions until than.

After Decius and Valeraion Persecutions (250-260 AD) the Koine Text started in Antioch, which became the Byzantine Imperial Text (also called the Lucian text in the 4^th century). During the persecution many manuscripts were burned and lost, thus sciptoriums were built and copied the NT.

Papryus Bodmer XIV-XV/p⁷⁵ – early 3^rd century

383 AD – Jerome finishes revising the Gospels, from existing Latin text,in the Vulgate (rewrote mainly the OT from Hebrew)

4^th/5^th Century – k (Codex Babiensis) = earliest extant Latin manuscript

5^th Century- Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis/D written in N. Africa or Egypt though it is called the “Western-Text.” Lots of tendentious revisions from its exemplar.

8^th Century Uncial E or Basilensis - ignored by Erasmus

Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis/D^ea 5^th Century and Codex Claromontanus – Theodore Beza’s Library (16^th Century) – poor translations – Wrote 9 editions of the Greek NT

1452-1456 – Johann Gutenberg’s 42 line Latin Bible in Mainz

1/10/1514 - Complutensian Polyglot (published 3/22/1522)

1590 – Pope Sixtus V declares the Vulgate the authoritative text.

1592- Pope Clement VIII again declares the Vulgate’s authority

3/10/1516- Desiderius Erasmus Novum Instrumentum Omne – First edition of the Greek NT (edito princeps). Also known as the Textus Receptus. Total of 5 revisions

Relied on 12/13^th century Byzantine Imperial text, Koine text, or the Majority text

1550 & 1551 – Edito Regia – 7 editions first to use verses by Robert Estienne = Stephanus

1734 – Johnn Albrecht Bengel editied the TR and classified it as α = original reading w/ full certainty β = a reading superior to the TR, though w/ less than absolute certainty

Used Codex Alexandrinus (A) and commentary on Revelation by Andreas of Caesaerea

1751-1752 Johann Jakob Wettstein 2 vol. edition

1775-1777; 1796-1806 Johann Jakob Griesbach

1830 – Karl Lachman “Down w/ the late text of the TR, and back to the text of the early 4^th century church.”

19^th century - Constantin von Tischendorf deciphers the Codex Ephraemi Syri Rescriptus (C) 5^th century text; also found Codex Sinaticus {N/S}

1857-1859 – Cardinal Mai uses Codex Vaticanus (B)

1881 – The New Testament in the Original Greek by Wescott – Hort ; Primarily uses Codex Vaticanus (B) (4th century text)

1898 Eberhand Nestle – Novum Testamentum Graece (final nail in the coffin for the TR). Compared the Wescott-Hort and Tischendorf versions and where they agreed he kept. He consulted a third edition Weymouth’s 2^nd edition of 1892 and after 1901 Weiss’ 1894 -1900 edition)

1902-1913 – Von Soden’s “The Writings of the New Testament, restored to their earliest attainable form on the basis of their textual history.”

1927 – Erwin Nestle’s 13^th ed. of the Nestle Text

1922-1955 – Vogel’s Novum Testamentum Gracae et Latine

1933-1984 – Merk’s Novum Testamentum Gracae et Latine

1942-1986 – Bover’s Novi Testamenti Gracae et Latina

Vogel-Merk-Bover = Roman Catholics

1966 – The Greek New Testament (GNT)

1979 – Pope John Paul II starts work on the Neo-Vulgate (initiated by Pope Paul VI)

Latest and greatest are the Nestle-Aland²⁶ and GNT⁴ (NA²⁶ closest to GNT³)

Gospel Contradictions Answered! Part 5 + Some Other Stuff

Did Mark Misquote Malachi and Give Credit to Isaiah in Mark 1:2?

I didn't even realize I had this little gem in my blog! So if you missed it too, don't worry. Some people think that Mark misquotes Malachi 3:1 and wrongly attributes it to Isaiah in Mark 1:2, hence there is an "error" in the Bible. Once again, we shall see with a little insight, this is far from being and "error."

Mark 1:2

2As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU,
WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY;

3THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,
'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD,
MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT

and

Malachi 3:1

"Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 40:3

A voice is calling,
"Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God."

Mark puts two verses together Malachi 3:1(v2) and than Isaiah 40:3(v3), and as the literary custom of the day, he attributes the entire quote to the higher ranking prophet.

BTW, notice that in original quotation Malachi, God/YHWH uses the pronoun "Me," while in Mark when refering to Jesus it is "You." Why is that? Because Jesus is the second person of the Godhead and so when God/YHWH says something, it is appropriate to quote Jesus as saying it.

Courtesy of Dr. Knox Chamblin Lectures on the Gospel and Acts

For more answered contradictions see the links here:

Gospel Contradictions Answered! Part 1

Gospel Contradictions Answered! Part 2

Gospel Contradictions Answered! Part 3

Gospel Contradictions Answered! Part 4


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Extra Credit:

For a good explanation of why we need the Law go to the Role of the Law in Galatians 3:19-25

Here's a little quote from Doug Ward of CRI:

Likely anticipating the objections to his treatment of the law, Paul strives to find a positive role for the law in 3:19-25. Two questions introduce the potential problem that others would have with Paul’s explanation. "What then, was the purpose of the law" (19), and "Is the law opposed to the promises of God?" (21).

Paul answers his own question in verse 19 with one of the most troublesome phrases in his letters, "it was added because of transgressions" (NIV). This phrase could potentially have a variety of translations. 1) The law was added because of transgressions, with a restraining effect. 2) The law was added to create transgressions, acting as a lure. 3) The law was added to increase or intensify transgression, acting as an identifier. One clue within this phrase is the inclusion of the word parabaseon ("transgressions"). This word is used specifically within Paul’s letters to denote wrongdoing done in the presence of the law. Romans 4:15 functions almost like a dictionary entry when Paul writes "where there is no law there is no transgression."
Parabaseon is a specialized word. Before something can be called a transgression, there must be some standard to transgress, and that standard in Galatians is the Mosaic Law. One scholar has rightly noted that with the word transgression "Paul is not thinking of the general condition of sin that justifies the infliction of God’s wrath, but the more specific situation that obtains wherever people are confronted with clearly defined, verbally transmitted laws and commands. Parabaseon always refers to passing beyond the limits." [6] The use of "transgression" here does not imply that the law itself brings sin, but rather a qualitative difference to the sin. Instead of a vague imperfection or general wrongdoing, it now becomes outright disobedience to a known command of God. This is also how this word is used in Romans 5:14, where the first sin of Adam is described as a transgression since it involved Adam’s disobedience to a known command of God.

This consideration of the meaning of parabaseon gets to the heart of what Paul means in Galatians 3:19. If one considers that a transgression is not even possible unless there is a law to transgress, Paul cannot mean that the law was given to restrict transgression, for there was no transgressions to restrict until the law appeared. So the function must be different. The law is valuable here in that it was added to identify the character of sin, labeling it as explicitly contrary to God. So the law was added to label, identify, and condemn sin as something contrary to God.

Finally a Creationism Post

Here are some links to some old, but not well known ideas, and to some very new research that is quite illuminating for Creationist/Intelligent Design proponents. Much kudos to Uncommon Descent, the blog of prominent ID proponent and Christian Seminary Professor Dr. William Dembski, where I received much of this info.

1. Haldane's Dilemma (my personal favorite)

Go to Walter Remine's website for an excellent explanation of the issue.
In a nutshell, the human and primate split happened (last common ancestor) about 6.5 million years ago, but let's use 10 million years for the ease of mathematics. The human genome has 3,000,000,000 nucleotides ("pieces of DNA) and let's say chimpanzees do also. Both have a scientifically accepted generation of 20 years (i.e how many years it takes them to reproduce; some flys are 10-12 days). Now we've all heard that there is a 2% difference in between the human and chimp genomes (false, but we'll skip that for now) so that means there needs to be 3 billion x 2% = 60,000,000 changes.

The numbers are approximate, but the main idea is that 10 million years is not enough time for the propagation and domination of those genetic changes.

Note: Keep in mind that when you hear about the 2% difference is not putting human and chimpanzee DNAs side-by-side and that they only have a 2/100 DNA differences. I mean humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes and chimps 24 (doesn't that already eliminate the 2% difference). According to the Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, there are "35 million single nucleotide changes, 5 million insertion/deletions, and various chromosomal rearrangements." This puts the number at little over 1%, but stating all these changes in the light of Haldane's dilemma should show us how unlikely all these changes could've happened in the last 6.5 million years or so.
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2. The Sea Anenome's Genome

How can the Sea Anenome, a creature that predates bilateral symmetry, have the genes for breast cancer?!? How could evolution know to put them there?

Sea Anemone Provides a New View of Animal Evolution. SCIENCE VOL 317 6 JULY 2007

Moreover, the anemone genes look vertebratelike. They often are full of noncodingregions called introns, which are much less common in nematodes and fruit flies than invertebrates. And more than 80% of the anemone introns are in the same places inhumans, suggesting that they probably existed in the common ancestor [750 Million years ago]...Finnerty and his graduate student James Sullivan also looked in the anemone genome for 283 human genes involved in a wide range of diseases... Moreover, in a few cases, such as the breast cancer gene BRCA2, the anemone’s version is more similar to the human’s than to the fruit fly’s or to the nematode’s.

Here's the link to the summary and the full article

3. Deletion of Ultraconserved Regions Produce Functional Mice

How can regions of the genome that have been ultraconserved (ultraconserved elements have been defined as a group of extremely conserved sequences that show 100% identity over 200 bp or greater between the human, mouse, and rat genomes) be so unimportant? If evolution went so out of its way to conserve these areas, why are they so frivolous? Think, if you had some of your heart and brain genes deleted (which are presumably highly selected for) would you live?

Link to the article

4. The Genes for Limbs Already in Fish

How can the instructions for limbs before they are needed be in fish?

Link here at physorg.com

Long before animals with limbs (tetrapods) came onto the scene about 365 million years ago, fish already possessed the genes associated with helping to grow hands and feet (autopods) report University of Chicago researchers in the May 24, 2007, issue of Nature.

5. Genomics and the Irreducible Nature of Eukaryote Cells

That is the original title of the article - I SWEAR!
Basically it smashes the idea of prokaryotic to eukaryotic evolution. Obviously, the authors still believe in evolution, but its nice to see this concept of endosymbiosis seriously reconsidered. Remember from a design standpoint , its easy to see b/c of the design constraints of a prokaryotes that they could not have mutated or "fused" into what we know as eukaryotes. This eliminates (makes highly dubious even from an evolutionary standpoint) one of evolutions prized idea that Creationist have known to be false for a long time.

Here's the Link to the article, hopefully you can find access for it at your school or library.
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Extra Credit: A clear point for Design Theorist

There is this whole idea of "Junk DNA" which scientists thought were evolutionary remnants, of you guessed it, worthless/junk DNA, that just stayed in our genome. Prominent evolutionary proponent and professor of Biology at Brown University said :

From a design point of view, pseudogenes are indeed mistakes. So why are they there? Intelligent design cannot explain the presence of a nonfunctional pseudogene, unless it is willing to allow that the designer made serious errors, wasting millions of bases of DNA on a blueprint full of junk and scribbles. Evolution, however, can explain them easily. Pseudogenes are nothing more than chance experiments in gene duplication that have failed, and they persist in the genome as evolutionary remnants of the past history of the b -globin genes.

Ken Miller, Life's Grand Design Technology Review Feb/March 1994 Volume 97 (2):24-43

While, prominent Intelligent Design proponent and professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University, Dr. Michael Behe predicted in his book Darwin's Black Box that Junk DNA, would have a purpose.

Guess who won? You got it - Dr. Behe.

See here:

Encyclopedia of DNA: New Findings Challenge Established Views on Human Genome

Much thanks to Uncommon Descent for this one.

More!
Another prediction that Creationists got right and Darwinist got wrong - The Appendix!

Darwinists predicted that the appendix had no function, while the Creationist (from a design standpoint) predicted it did... who won? You got it Creationists.

Deity of Christ - Quick Verses

Here are some quick verses for the Deity of Christ (ie full equality with the Father) which various groups like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses deny:

|| First Level Statements: Jesus Explicitly Called God or Called Fully Equal with God ||

John 1:1 (The Word later on is said to be Jesus)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:18

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

John 5:18

¹⁸For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

John 10:30-33

³⁰"I and the Father are one."

³¹The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.
³²Jesus answered them, "I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?"
³³The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God."

Philippians 2:6

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped

Titus 2:13

¹³looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus

Peter 1:1

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ

|| Second Level Statements: Implicit Statements of Christ's Deity ||

Hebrews 1:3

³And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His [God's] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Colossians 1:19

¹⁹For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him

Colossians 2:9
⁹For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form

John 8:57-59

⁵⁷So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."

⁵⁹Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

John 12:41 -"These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him." (cf. Isaiah 6)

|| Third Level Statements: Theological Insights ||

Mark 1:2

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

"BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU,
WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY;

+

Malachi 3:1

"Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.

Notice that in original quotation Malachi, God/YHWH uses the pronoun "Me," while in Mark when referring to Jesus it is "You." Why is that? Because Jesus is the second person of the Godhead and so when something is attributed to God/YHWH, it is appropriate to attribute it to Jesus.

[BTW, if you're wondering why it Mark says from the prophet Isaiah, its b/c Mark puts two verses together Malachi 3:1(v2) and than Isaiah 40:3(v3), and as the literary custom of the day, he attributes the entire quote to the higher ranking prophet.]

Isaiah 44:24–”Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer…’I am the LORD, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself‘”

John 1:3 –”All things were made through Him [Christ], and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (cf. Colossians 1:16)

Micah 5:2 - "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

Ezekiel 1:26 Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. 27Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. 28As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. (cf. Revelation 1,4)

Matthew 21:15 "But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant 16and said to Him, "Do You hear what these children are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU [God] HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF[God/Jesus]'?"

Its kind of slick of Jesus, but you see that Jesus is getting praise from the children and then He quotes a verse from the Bible saying that the God prepared children to give Himself/God praise and uses it of Himself!

Biblical Musings

Do you ever run across verses in the Bible and say to yourself “I gotta remember this” or “How did I miss this the first thousands times I read it?!?!” Well, I do and here are my Biblical musings:

Can God do what He wants? Yes, b/c that's who God is – GOD! Otherwise something else, outside of Himself, say our concept of fairness, would limit His freedom

Psalm 106:8

Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,
That He might make His power known.

Matthew 20:15

¹⁵'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'

Jeremiah 18: 1-6

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying,
²"Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce My words to you."
³Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
⁴But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
5Then the word of the LORD came to me saying,

⁶"Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

Isaiah 29:15-16

¹⁵Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD,
And whose deeds are done in a dark place,
And they say, "Who sees us?" or "Who knows us?"
¹⁶You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, "He did not make me";
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, "He has no understanding"?

Romans 9:17-23

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."
¹⁸So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
¹⁹You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
²⁰On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
²¹Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
²²What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
²³And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.

Suffering in Perspective:

Psalm 107:11-13

¹¹Because they had rebelled against the words of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
¹²Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was none to help.
¹³Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
He saved them out of their distresses.

Psalm 119:71

It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.

Amos 4 - One of my favorite chapters of the OT

Genesis 32:25

"When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him." (Think of how the pain would remind Him of that day and keep him humble, thankful, worshipful, etc.)

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

⁷Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself!
⁸Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
⁹And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
¹⁰Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Why we should pray:

Psalm 116:1-2

¹I love the LORD, because He hears
My voice and my supplications.
²Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.

Excellent Prayers During Suffering!

Matthew 26:39, 42, 44

³⁹And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."
⁴²He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done."
⁴⁴And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

¹⁷Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹The Lord GOD is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds' feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

These are just some awesome Psalms: Psalm 40, 86

Bondage of the Will or Libertarian Free Will?

Matthew 11:27

"All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."

Matthew 13:10-11

¹⁰And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"
11Jesus answered them, "to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. "

Luke 10:21

At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, "I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight

Luke 18:32-34

³²"For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon,
³³and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again."
³⁴But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.

Luke 24:15-17

¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.
¹⁶But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.

Believe that Jesus died for all sins and not in limited atonement? Did Jesus die for this sin (or the demons')?

Matthew 12:31-32

"...Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
³²"Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."

Mormon's believe that God is married and that people will be married in heaven. They should read this:

Matthew 22:29-33

²⁹But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.
³⁰"For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
³¹"But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God:
³²'I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
³³When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

What makes you great? Hint: not money, power, and fame.

Matthew 20:26-28

²⁶"It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Hell made primarily for the devil and his angels and not us? I think there are other verses to back this up or maybe not...

Matthew 25:41

⁴¹"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;