I learned recently there is a Psalm 151. Apparently it is in the Eastern Orthodox Bible, but not in the Catholic/Protestant Bibles.
Is there any historical context why this did not make it into those Bibles?
Are there other Psalms that did not make it into the Bibles? I'd love to read those if they exist.
luke chapter 14: verse 16-20
"16)Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
17)And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
18)And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. "
When I stumbled upon luke chapter 14 verse 20, I burst into laughter as in the above verses the people atleast tried to give a valid excuse but the last one was like I won't even try🫠.
I've been researching this for years and I need to share what I found because I genuinely can't shake it.
It starts with a question. Abram has already left his homeland, already believed in the promise that God gave him, but years have passed and the promise still hasn't materialized. So he asks the most human question in all of Scripture. "Sovereign Lord, how can I know?" And God doesn't give him more words. He gives him a ceremony.
God tells Abram to bring three specific animals each three years old plus two birds. That phrase "three years old" appears three times in a single verse. Ancient scribes didn't waste words. That triple emphasis at the exact moment a promise becomes a covenant is deliberate. Three animals. Three years old. Two sets of three. 3|3.
Three years old was also peak maturity for livestock. Not leftovers. The absolute best. That matters because the message it carries is that the promise has reached the stage of assured fulfillment. God doesn't formalize covenants prematurely.
The animals aren't random either. Each one points forward to exactly what Jesus would accomplish as the ransom sacrifice, like God was encoding the entire plan centuries before it happened.
The heifer was used for purification from contact with death. Numbers 19 describes the red heifer ceremony for those defiled by a corpse. Its inclusion signals the covenant addresses defilement and death at the root. Jesus didn't just forgive sin. He conquered death itself.
The female goat was the animal of atonement for the whole nation. On the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16 the high priest would sacrifice a goat for all of Israel's collective guilt. Every year, the same ritual, the same sins, never actually removed. The writer of Hebrews makes clear those sacrifices were always pointing forward. Jesus became that final atonement, the one every Day of Atonement goat was foreshadowing.
The ram was the animal of substitution and consecration. Most people know the story in Genesis 22 where Abraham raises the knife over Isaac and God stops him and provides a ram caught in a thicket. That ram died in Isaac's place. But the ram also appeared in priestly ordination. In Exodus 29 when Aaron and his sons were consecrated, a ram was sacrificed and its blood was placed on the right ear, right thumb, and right big toe of each priest, symbolizing complete dedication to God's service. So the ram carried two messages at once. Someone can stand in your place, and consecration to God is possible because provision has been made. What's striking is that God included the ram in Genesis 15 before the Genesis 22 story even happened. The symbol came before the event it was illustrating. Jesus was the final fulfillment of both dimensions, the ultimate substitute and the one through whom we are fully consecrated to God's service.
Together those three animals cover the complete picture of what the ransom sacrifice would accomplish. Purification from death. Atonement for sin. Substitution and consecration. God embedded the entire gospel into a single covenant ceremony.
The two birds add something else. Turtledoves and pigeons were the prescribed offering for people who couldn't afford larger animals in Leviticus 5:7. Their inclusion alongside expensive livestock signals this covenant wasn't reserved for the powerful. It extended to everyone. And unlike the three animals the birds weren't divided. I'm still working through exactly what that means but it feels deliberate.
Then Abraham falls into a deep sleep and only God passes through the divided animals. In ancient covenant ceremonies both parties normally walked through, essentially swearing "let this happen to me if I break this covenant." But Abraham is unconscious. He literally cannot participate. God takes the full weight of the obligation on himself alone. The covenant is entirely one sided.
The smoking furnace and fiery torch that pass through carry their own weight too. The furnace echoes what God had just told Abram, that his descendants would suffer in a foreign land for 400 years, and Deuteronomy 4:20 literally calls Egypt an iron smelting furnace. The furnace says the suffering is coming but it will not destroy the promise. The torch is the active deliverer, the same imagery as the pillar of fire that led Israel out of Egypt in Exodus 13:21. Both realities present at once. The affliction and the rescue, already encoded before either one happened.
Now here's where the 33 or 3|3 pattern starts doing something I can't explain away.
After Genesis 15 that marker keeps reappearing throughout Scripture, but not randomly. It shows up precisely when a promise God made is visibly transitioning into fulfillment. Like a signature being applied at exactly the right moment.
The 33rd mention of Abraham's name in Scripture lands at the birth of Isaac in Genesis 21. A childless man who was told to count the stars. Who, along with this wife, were way beyond the point of having a natural child birth being in their 90's. And the moment the promise finally breaks open into reality, that's where the marker lands.
The 33rd mention of Jacob's name lands at Bethel, where heaven opens and God reaffirms the covenant directly to him. The ladder vision where angels were ascending and descending. God standing above it saying I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and I give this land to you and your descendants. The marker appears exactly when the covenant passes to the next generation.
Jacob's descendants through Leah alone number exactly 33 by Genesis 46. Just one branch of one generation of one man and you can already see the nation God promised to a wandering nomad taking visible shape. This is also the line through which the messiah would come.
Joshua 12 records exactly 33 kings defeated in the conquest of Canaan. Two under Moses east of the Jordan, 31 under Joshua west of the Jordan. Scripture itself provides the count. On the same night as the Genesis 15 ceremony God named the boundaries of the promised land, territory completely out of Abram's reach. Centuries later that territory is secured king by king and the count stops at 33. Joshua 21:45 then declares "not one word out of all the good promises was broken, all of them came true."
David reigns in Jerusalem for exactly 33 years. And when you trace the genealogy from Seth (first of redeemable mankind) to David through Luke 3, David appears as the 33rd generation. The 33rd generation produces the king through whom the messianic line would flow, and then that same king reigns for exactly 33 years. The marker appears twice at once, through David.
Jesus completes his earthly ministry at approximately 33 years old and declares it is finished. Every thread of promise stretching back to Genesis 3:15, through Abraham, through the 33rd generation David, through Isaiah's suffering servant, converges at that moment. The new covenant Jeremiah foretold in chapter 31 is established. And the ransom sacrifice those three animals in Genesis 15 were pointing toward has been made.
What I keep coming back to is not just that the number recurs but when it recurs. Every single instance arrives at a moment where someone could ask the same question Abram asked that night. How can I know? And every time the marker appears it feels like a quiet answer, a callback to the night God passed through those pieces alone and bound himself unconditionally to the promise.
The writer of Hebrews reflects on this directly. "Since he could not swear by anyone greater, he swore by himself, so that by two unchangeable things we may have strong encouragement." Two unchangeable things. The promise and the oath. Both witnessed in that dark field while Abram slept.
I'm not arguing for numerology or hidden codes. These are explicit numbers anyone can verify by opening their Bible and counting. The question isn't whether the pattern exists. The question is what it means.
Is this God signing his work, or am I connecting dots that aren't there? Genuinely curious what others think.
TL;DR: In Genesis 15 God tells Abram to bring three animals each three years old, creating a deliberate 3|3 structure at the moment of covenant. That same marker, 33, reappears throughout Scripture at the exact moments God's promises transition into fulfillment. Isaac's birth at Abraham's 33rd mention. Jacob's ladder vision at his 33rd mention. 33 descendants through Leah. 33 kings defeated in Canaan. David as the 33rd generation reigning 33 years in Jerusalem. Jesus completing his ministry at 33. Not random. Always at the threshold between promise and reality.
I have a question about following the Old Testament. It might seem strange but I was very curious about shellfish I have a friend who doesn’t eat shellfish while I do. I never received a proper answer about is it ok to eat shellfish.
I was raised Catholic but never baptized. I am 28 and recently I started reading the Bible for the first time ever because, even though I don’t go to church, I’ve always felt deeply connected to the faith I was raised with, my culture, and my belief in God and Jesus Christ.
I started with the Gospels and read all four. Watching The Chosen actually helped me understand the parables and context a lot better. But honestly, since I already knew most of the story of Jesus, I didn’t feel completely hooked yet.
But today, I started reading the letter to the Romans and wow. Once I started, I genuinely couldn’t stop. I read the whole thing in about two hours, constantly pausing to watch videos and explanations so I wouldn’t miss anything. It completely fascinated me in a way I wasn’t expecting.
Now I honestly can’t wait to read the other letters and books. I didn’t expect this at all, but reading the Bible is genuinely starting to change my life and the way I see things.
Did anyone else have that moment with Romans or another book of the Bible where everything suddenly felt much deeper and more alive?
I understand that the rebellion that occured was a result of a curse from the Prophet Nathan to King David for his murder of Bethsheba's husband. However, umder the circumstances of Absalom's decison to rebel against his father, I can't say I truly disagree and I have struggled with that. His brother Amnon, David's firstborn, raped their sister, and because he was David's firstborn, David did nothing. Absalom rebeled to avenge this injustice, and personally I cannot say I would not also cut my father out of my life for not condemning my brother's crime. It feels almost unjust for Absalom to be villanized as he is, although I know the lord is the personification of Justice. How do I reconcile this?
Most of my life i used to be atheist. Proudly atheist. One day life hits me. Suddenly i was passing the worst period of my life. I started getting angry, questioning why is this happening to me. I am a good person. I am kind, i am truthful, i am compassionate, i have good moral compass.
I passed many days locked up in the house. Barely going out to walk my dog.
One day I had to go out from the house and i had to take an Uber to go to see a doctor. On my way back home i also took an uber. The driver started making conversation. He started telling me that he passed a bankruptcy and he found peace in reading the Bible. I stayed quiet and listen. He told me that God doesn’t not give bad things to bad people, he gives bad things to good people to turn them to his way. He told me stories from the Bible. I stayed quiet and listen.
I got home, I thanked him for this discussion and got home.
I got home, i open the door and started crying. I open the first time the Bible and started reading it.
One thing I didn’t told you, is that i was going through bankruptcy as well in that moment.
Later edit: I strongly believe i met that person for a reason. I felt touched by god. I felt him calling me to him. He showed me his there.
Is this an actual prophesy of Jesus? I was having a terrible day and asked God to give me some guidance and I randomly opened my bible to Isaiah 53. Would I be incorrect in personally relating to this? I just want to understand the context of it before feeling dumb for this being my new favorite.
The Man of Sin/Son of Perdition.... is this the same person in different clothing? Meaning is the Man of Sin actually the Antichrist with a different do go kind of guy. and the Antichrist is the Son of Perdition in the Man of Sin's body. Or are they two different? Man of Sin for 3.5 years and Son of Perdition for 3.5 years comes back in 3 days and showing himself as god (Mercy Seat). Hope I made this clear. Two different individuals, or one individual in two different roles. (KJV)
During a feast of Passover in Jerusalem, Christ was crucified on a Friday, and he rose from the dead on the third day.
These three paschal days, from the beginning of the Friday Christ was crucified to the end of the Sunday he rose from the dead, are called Triduum Paschale.
The third day of Triduum Paschale marks the last day of a new week.
In the old week, Sunday is the first day (post sabbatum).
In the new week, Sunday is the seventh day (post dominicam).
The eighth day
The Bible says:
"And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day of your bringing the wave offering’s sheaf—there shall be seven full weeks. Until the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall count fifty days". (Leviticus 23:15-16 LEB)
Palm Sunday marks the first day of a holy and great eight-day week.
The last day of the holy and great eight-day week is the eighth day.
The eighth day is: (i) the third day of Triduum Paschale, (ii) the last day of the holy and great eight-day week, (iii) the first day of the count to Pentecost.
The count to Pentecost (1–50) is the eighth day plus seven full weeks (1+(7x7)=50).
(This text has illustrations you can see here)
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What are some good Bible verses and prayers to avoid it?
So my mom and I have been reading the King James Version, and I am a bit curious, is it a good or like okay translation? I just wanna know if there is anything I should know about the KJV.
Edit: Please do recommend other translations, it would help a lot! Thanks, y'all.
1 John 2:23
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Obviously, the book of Enoch is not considered scripture by most Christian traditions. However, there are obviously some true things in the book considering that Jude and 1 Peter (to my knowledge) quote it. The question is, which parts are true and which parts aren’t? For example, the book says that makeup comes from a fallen angel Azael who taught mankind how to make cosmetics. The text says that makeup is wrong essentially.
Hello, sorry if already asked but I couldn't find the answer.
What does the symbols represent/mean after the numbers such as 6, 9, 14, 24 etc?
I have a picture, please see the replies.
I’m looking to buy a 1997 NASB Bible for my husband for Father’s Day, he wants classical reference (reference in between the two columns), red letter and thumb index.
I’m hoping to have it be personalized and have it be a Bible that he can have forever. It’s proven hard to find a Bible like that with the thumb index!
Proverbs 3:7-8
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”
Let’s break this down, starting with “be not wise in your own eyes.” This is saying to resist pride of thinking you know best, and trusting in your own opinions. We must stay open to Gods wisdom, for he knows what’s best.
We are then taken to the text stating “fear the Lord”. This is used wisely in the Bible, and could be misunderstood If just read literally. The world “fear” is not a sense of terror, but more of respecting and honoring God.
Lastly, we are brought to the statement that rejecting evil will “heal your flesh and refresh your bones”. This idea is saying, living in Gods wisdom will bring peace, health, and emotional stability,
This verse in a whole is simply saying “Don’t depend on yourself. Respect God, avoid evil, and His wisdom will bring change and spiritual healing into your life.”
I keep seeing this verse on a gym shirt last week and it finally clicked why it bother me so much.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” People put it on graduation cards, locker room walls, motivational posters. But have people actually read the two verses right before it?
Paul is in prison. He’s talking about being hungry. About being in need. About being abased. So, the “all things” he’s talking about is enduring hardship, not crushing your goals. He’s saying he can be content in any circumstance because of Christ. So when someone quotes it before a big game/ a job interview, they’re kind of saying the opposite of what Paul meant one could say.
He wasn’t promising success. He was promising peace in suffering.
Do you think this kind of misuse actually matters, or am I being too picky about it? 😬😬
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This is the heart of the Christianity. Each part of this verse says something important.
>For God
Theism is asserted and atheism denied.
>so loved the world,
Dualism asserted. God is not the world, he loves the world. God is benevolent.
>that he gave
God is a giver. The world receives.
>his only begotten Son,
Jesus is unique and divine, not merely an enlightened man, not merely one son of God among many.
>that whosoever believeth in him
All are called without exception. Belief in Jesus is the only condition for salvation. Salvation is utterly simple.
>should not perish,
Our natural fate would be to perish. We are born mortal.
>but have everlasting life.
Immortality is a reality and consequence of belief.