Kings in the time of Daniel

By Mark Morgan | Daniel , Jeremiah , Timelines

While writing a story about Daniel over the last five years, I knew that I would finally get to the stage where I needed to make decisions about the later kings of Babylon in the time of Daniel.  The history in the early parts of Daniel’s life is fairly much agreed upon and fits well with the Bible.  However, the agreement fades away as we consider the following fifty years of history.  After a lot of study of the Bible’s records – which I consider to be the inspired word of God – I cannot embrace the generally-accepted lists of kings of Babylon, Media and Persia during the sixth century BC (eg. List of Kings of Babylon (Wikipedia) or List of Kings of Babylon (Jatland).

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The Land of Pathros

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Maps

After the flood, Noah’s descendants spread across the world.  Noah’s youngest son, Ham, had a son called Egypt, some of whose descendants were called the Pathrusim (Genesis 10:14).  Many believe them to be connected with the Land of Pathros, a part of Upper Egypt (see map below).

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The working age of Levites

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

What is the right age to start our life’s most important work? Some people begin to excel in their chosen profession at a very early age (for example, Mozart began composing at four or five years of age), while others shine much later (Oscar Swahn won his first Olympic gold medal at the age of 60).  The Levites helped with the worship of God – who has killed people for flouting his rules of worship.  For everyone’s good, the job had to be learned thoroughly. So what was the working age of Levites?

We still have rules today about the age at which one can start or stop work, and the same was true for priests and Levites in Israel.

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A Bumper Harvest

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Jeremiah had prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would destroy Jerusalem.  The destruction happened, just as God had said, but straight after that, Judah had a bumper harvest.  This is a very unusual situation.  When a nation is attacked and pillaged, a famine normally follows, further increasing the survivors’ sufferings.

Let’s explore what happened at that time, and perhaps we can find out why.

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Egypt in the Bible

By Admin | Jeremiah , Joseph

The Bible names many different countries: Israel, Babylon, India, Ethiopia, Persia, Syria, Moab, Egypt, Italy, and many more.  The most common one is Israel – not surprisingly, since God says that for him it is the centre of the world, the land he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (whom he renamed “Israel”).^[1]Sometimes it is hard to separate God’s love for the land from his love for the people he chose to give it to: see Ezekiel 5:5; 20:6; 38:12; Isaiah 41:8-9; Zechariah 2:8 and Jeremiah 12:14.  When … Continue reading Continue reading

Jeremiah in Egypt: Tahpanhes

By Admin | Jeremiah

After Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, he appointed Gedaliah governor of Judah and left some soldiers to provide support for the new administration.  However, evil men assassinated Gedaliah and killed the soldiers.  Afraid, the people who lived in Judah decided to escape to Egypt to avoid any retribution from Nebuchadnezzar.  First they went to Tahpanhes (Jeremiah chapters 43-44), which was the closest major city of Egypt to Judah.

According to Wikipedia, it was later known as Daphnae and is now called Tell Defenneh.  At that time, it was located beside a lake on a branch of the Nile delta.  The site is now situated on the Suez Canal.  The meaning of the name “Tahpanhes” is uncertain. Continue reading

Washing in Bible times

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Jesus

In the last two years we have all become familiar with calls to wash our hands frequently.  With COVID-19 leaving its mark all over the world, we are all encouraged to be vaccinated, but also to use soap, hand sanitiser and disinfectants.  How does our response to COVID-19 compare with cleansing and washing in Bible times?

Many people have observed that the Law of Moses concentrates heavily on cleanliness and frequently mentions washing – yet it is not the only part of the Bible where this is true.
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Destroying Solomon’s Temple

By Admin | Jeremiah

Destroying Solomon’s Temple

Why is destroying things so much more fun than building them?

We can dimly appreciate how much time and effort it takes to build a tall brick chimney, yet when such an amazing edifice has outlived its usefulness, large crowds gather to watch the demolition.  No-one watched the long months of building as the chimney grew one round of bricks at a time, yet many will revel in the spectacular destruction as a carefully placed explosive charge brings those bricks crashing down.

Breaking down is always easier than building up – but that doesn’t mean it is always easy. Continue reading

Jeremiah in Egypt

By Admin | Jeremiah

Jeremiah in Egypt

Background

Nebuchadnezzar conquered the nation of Judah and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 587/586BC.  He captured King Zedekiah and killed his sons, then blinded him and took him away to Babylon, where he died in captivity. Continue reading

Words in Jeremiah

By Admin | Jeremiah

Individual languages will often have a characteristic sound, even to people who cannot speak the language at all. However, many of the interesting characteristics of a language can only be seen by people who are expert in the language. Most of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and the book of Jeremiah is no exception. What can we learn about words in Jeremiah?Continue reading

The book of Jeremiah in chronological order

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

The book of Jeremiah in chronological order – a suggestion

The book of Jeremiah includes dates which show us that the text is not in chronological order, as is discussed in the article “Why is Jeremiah out of order?”. While writing the series “Terror on Every Side!” I found it necessary to decide what the chronological order was, as far as possible. Although we can’t have much confidence in the conclusions for some parts, others we can be very sure of. The table below shows a possible chronological order for the book. In a while I hope to make the Book of Jeremiah available in this order – using the text of the World English Bible (or see the article in Wikipedia) which is available in the public domain. Continue reading

Oaths and Promises

By Admin | Jeremiah

Oaths and Promises: Zedekiah’s oath

In 2 Kings 24:20 we are told that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.  On the face of it, that seems reasonable – why not rebel against an overlord if you think you can get away with it? But God did not view it that way: he saw it as a breach of promise. Oaths and promises are important to God…Continue reading