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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One of the most important word pictures in the Bible is that of comparing life to walking a path. In distant history, traveling safely on the right path was often a life and death matter. Getting on and staying on the path was hugely important because there was no thought of getting instructions from a GPS-guided smartphone.
The Hebrew word for “path” or “way” is dereckh. Thinking back through various Bible verses, good paths might be narrow, straight, level, well-marked, and safe. There are many ways to walk wrongly on these kinds of paths, and in a word picture, you can think of these ways as “sin.” Going the wrong way, turning off the path, destroying the path or ignoring the path are some of those ways. Mistakes can be made intentionally or unintentionally.
Teshuva is the Hebrew word for “repent.” It means to do what it takes to get back on the path and walk correctly. To truly repent, it is not enough to just say, “I’m sorry.” Repentance typically requires a change in action, and may require making restitution to whoever has been offended.
