The Eternal Life Series offers a look at eternal life based on John 17:3 and related New Testament scriptures.
Most or all of the New Testament was written in Greek, so Bible students often dissect scripture by minutely examining Greek words and philosophies. This is natural for Americans because the American education and culture is based on Greek ways of thought.
However, Jesus probably taught mostly in Hebrew, with some of his teachings in Aramaic. Jesus and his followers were well educated in the Hebrew Old Testament. For the first couple of decades after his death, the followers of Jesus were mostly practicing Jews. It seems likely that a better understanding of the teachings of Jesus can be attained by looking at them through a Jewish cultural viewpoint and a better understanding of Hebrew words.
The impetus for this series were some of the episodes of the Bema Discipleship podcast, along with personal study times with Hebrew experts Elle Grove Fricks and Brad H. Young. Working with them, we developed a dictionary of some Hebrew words that you can find in Reference 7 of the Reference section of this website.
Although each episode in this series can be approached individually, the Eternal Life Series is written for viewers to watch all of the episodes in the order in which they are presented.
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The first evangelical teaching of Jesus is found in Mark 1:15, “The time has come, the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”
“Good news” is the word “euangelion” in Greek. The term was originally used to describe the rise of a new ruler or the announcement of a significant event, such as a major military victory. The runners or messengers who made the announcements were called “evangelists.”
In Mark 1:15, Jesus is saying a new king is about to take over, and everyone should believe it fully so they will change how they think and behave. His listeners may not realize it, but Jesus is presenting a hugely important choice: they can choose to stay as subjects to the old rulers and kingdoms so no changes will be necessary, OR they can choose a new kingdom and new king which will require making changes. No matter which way they choose, they will be subjects of a king.
Most earthly kingdoms commonly dominate their subjects. Earthly kingdoms intend to take control of the lives of their subjects
