November 1, 2025

Scripture Study: Watching Jesus Pray, part 1

Luke 22:39-46

Over the years many individuals, couples and even families have come to me for counseling. I really enjoy taking the Bible and applying it to the problems of life. During our initial conversation I usually like to ask them what they have done so far about their problem, and as you can imagine I get all kinds of answers. Sometimes they’ll say, “We don’t know what to do!” Now that’s an honest answer. Another common answer I get is “We’ve prayed about it.”

For some people that can mean that they’ve thrown up a few quick prayers, but they still haven’t seen any significant change. Others may have prayed quite a bit, but they too may have seen little or no change. But whether it’s a few hasty prayers or a thousand lengthy prayers, I’ve noticed that many people seem almost apologetic about prayer in general. Sometimes the only thing to do about some challenge in your life is to pray because it’s the only thing you can do about it at the moment. Every other option may be out of your hands. But I’d really like to convince you that when you’ve prayed you’ve done something great. God sometimes requires us to do more than pray, but at other times prayer may be all that God requires.

John Bunyan, the well-known author of Pilgrim’s Progress, put it this way, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” He, of course, meant that prayer should be the first thing we do before considering other options, and he’s absolutely right.

We can learn so much by watching what Jesus does during tough times, and so let’s begin our multi-part study with a short passage from Luke 22:39-46 where we get to watch Jesus pray. Jesus is facing the most difficult day of his life. He will be betrayed, beaten and crucified. He has just spent his last night together with the twelve in the upper room, and so v. 39 begins:

“And coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’ And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.’ Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.’”

Next time we’ll zoom in and take notes. But for now, what concern, need or fear are you facing? Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Daniel McCabe

Trivia (Find the answer below)

How many kings of Judah were good or mostly good, according to the Bible?

On Location: The Neighborhood of Mea Shearim–

Modern Technology, part 2

The ultra-Orthodox rabbis of this Jerusalem neighborhood ban or at least strongly discourage the use of televisions, radios, computers and the internet by its residents out of sincere concern for the harm that can come from them, particularly the potential distraction from both family and religious priorities as well as concern over exposure to immodest, immoral and inappropriate content. When sometimes utilized for work or for rabbinical studies, “kosher” computers are heavily filtered, used offline or equipped with a private internal network created by the community. Smartphones are strongly discouraged though they too are heavily filtered when used by business owners, tech workers and emergency responders. Residents may own non-smart devices and flip phones that have no internet access, apps, a camera or texting capability. Anecdotally, it is said that some residents use smartphones discreetly or in secret, due to strong social pressure and the stigma associated with owning internet-enabled devices.

Daniel McCabe

Bibliology: The Preservation of Scripture, part 4

Let’s talk about the preservation of Scripture. Much of what follows won’t have supporting passages of Scripture, for they are mostly logical and historical statements, but we’ll see what you think.

The ipsissima vox of all Scripture—a Latin phrase, “the very voice,” that which is meant, the voice and meaning of all Scripture—has been providentially preserved by God throughout history and will continue for all time (Psalm 119:89, 160; 1 Peter 1:24-25. On the other hand, the ipsissima verba—“the very words” of the autographs, the original manuscripts—can only be carefully reasoned today.

When you hold the Bible in your hands today, it is the Word of God. It is the voice and meaning of that which was written by the Scripture writer, but we don’t have the original manuscripts. The faithful translation that you have in your hands was translated into the English language from the thousands of manuscripts that have survived over the centuries, but none of which are the original autographs. Even so we can carefully reason the most likely wording of Paul or Peter.

This might lead skeptics to say, “It’s all just a giant telephone game. You really don’t have the Bible. It’s been changed over time.” To which I would counter, “If you’ve ever done a study of how ancient texts are transmitted, then you can’t escape the conclusion that the Bible, far and away (not even close to its second place competitor), is the most historically attested work of all time.”

Anyone who’s done any measure of study in the field of textual transmission is only fooling himself if he looks at the Bible and thinks that it’s been warped in what was originally written. The more you study and the more you understand the thousands of manuscripts available to us, you can’t help but see that the Bible which we have in our hands is the ipsissima vox of those Scripture writers. It is what they wrote.

It’s also amazing to me that the same skeptics who say, “The Bible has been warped throughout time,” will then grab any other historical work off the bookshelf, hand it to you and say, “These are the speeches of Julius Caesar. This is Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.” No, not even close. We might have a few manuscripts that survived for up to one thousand years following the original writings of Caesar, and most simply assume that they are accurate; however, the Bible is a lot closer to its autographs with substantially more attestations. If you study the field of textual transmission, you’ll find that the Bible is rock solid. We have in our hands today what the Scripture writers wrote.

True, the autographs, the original manuscripts of Scripture, were not physically preserved by God. Theoretically, if you were to dig around in the Judean desert and found an ancient manuscript which dated to the time of the biblical writers, you wouldn’t know for sure if it was the original or not. The autographs were not miraculously preserved, but their message was preserved by human agents who copied and translated them.

Throughout history God preserved His word through the faithful work of humans over millennia, and there is no one authoritative version of the Bible. This is important. Every quality translation, whether a dynamic translation (word for word from the Greek and Hebrew) or a functionally-equivalent translation (readable and smooth for modern readers)—as long as it’s been faithfully translated from the manuscripts available to us—is authoritative for the faith and practice of the person of God. I won’t list the names of the Bible translations here, but there is a popular view among many that only one specific version is acceptable. That is simply not true, and the more you learn about textual transmission, you can’t help but come to this conclusion. There are many quality translations today. An individual can be saved by responding to Scripture, and this saving faith is sufficient regardless of the version or language of the Scripture being used. Again, some people hold that you can’t be saved unless you respond to the gospel out of one specific Bible version, but that is simply not right.

Following the completion of the Bible, it took final form and organization with chapter and verse divisions as well as vowel pointings in the Hebrew, but these later developments are not inspired. They may not be part of the original inspired work, but they don’t obfuscate the ipsissima vox of Scripture either. They don’t confound it or confuse it. They’re actually useful in the proclamation of Scripture. It can be very convenient, for example, to know the chapter and verse for John 3:16 in order to find it in the text. It helps us organize Scripture. There are some versions of Scripture without these chapter and verse markers if that’s what you prefer. In fact, I think that’s a beautiful way to read Scripture. I quite enjoy reading the Bible in this way, but I’m certainly not against the chapter and verse divisions either. Yes, sometimes the chapter and verse divisions unfortunately break up the narrative, but they’re also helpful tools as long as we understand that Paul didn’t write, “Chapter 1, verse 1.” He just wrote his letter to the Romans as we would write a letter, and Daniel likewise wrote down the visions that were given to him without chapter and verse. They came much later.

God has ensured that His Word would be preserved throughout all time, and one can look back in history to see how that has happened.

Adam Keim

Life in the Land: Seven or Nine?

Have you ever seen a Jewish menorah, sometimes called a lampstand or a candlestick? How many branches are on one? Well, sometimes you’ll count seven and sometimes you’ll count nine. So, what’s the difference?

God commanded the Israelites to place a 7-branched menorah in the temple. This is the one you’ll see on modern Jewish coins or on the platform in modern synagogues whereas the 9-branched menorah is called a hanukkiah, used only during the celebration of Hanukkah. If you look closely at the picture below on the right, you’ll notice that all nine branches are in a straight line, but the middle branch is slightly higher than the other eight (sometimes it’s lower). This ninth branch serves as the helper candle. The other eight branches are lit during the eight-day Hanukkah celebration.

Therefore, a 7-branched menorah is used for all occasions other than Hanukkah, and a 9-branched hanukkiah (sometimes referred to as “8-branched”) can only be used at Hanukkah. In any event, both make me think of Jesus, who called himself the “light of the world” in John 9:5 just after leaving the temple with its 7-branched menorah in John 8:59 and shortly before John’s mention of the celebration of Hanukkah (also called the Feast of Dedication) in John 10:22.

Daniel McCabe

Answer to the Trivia

C. 8: Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, Josiah