Greek Terms

How I Study the Bible

I am not a seminary graduate. What I have is a large library, years of reading, and forty years of wrestling with a God I could not fully explain. Here is how the work actually gets done.

In Philippians 4:11, Paul borrows the Stoic word autarkēs but adds one word that changes everything: he had to learn it. The contentment he means is formed only by the circumstances most of us spend our lives avoiding.

What Is a King? Slave to Christ (2 of 6)

Paul opens Romans with a self-description 2026 American ears cannot hear correctly. *Doulos Christou*, slave of Christ. The softening costs more than translators know.

ABBA, Father

You have probably heard a sermon claim that Abba means "Daddy." That idea traces back largely to Joachim Jeremias in the mid-twentieth century, and it has stuck in popular preaching ever since. But the case does not hold up, and what the word actually means is something heavier.

How I Study the Bible

Very Little Is Needed

What Is a King? Slave to Christ (2 of 6)

ABBA, Father