GN-Day169 2 Samuel 18-19; Psalm 117; John 1:24-51

Daily GNT Bible Reading Podcast

2SAMUEL 18-19:Civil war might have been avoided, but Absalom didn’t choose wisely. And I observe that my being bald has advantages in some situations! But seriously, all of the terrible things that happened here are the consequences of David’s sin.

PSALM 117:This is a doxology that one day the whole world will sing.

JOHN 1b:John consciously made an original account and very consciously left out things that are included in the three Synoptic Gospels. Where he does include things the others wrote about, he includes details that the others didn’t mention. Those stories are made to fit his themes. His gospel is thematically arranged, not chronologically arranged.

In John’s poetic opening to this Gospel, he calls Jesus ‘the Word’. ‘Word’ in Greek (logos) usually means more than just one word. Among its several meanings, in this place, its meaning is ‘communication’. Jesus is God’s personal communication or message to the world. And ‘full of grace and truth’ in more traditional translations means that Jesus is all about bringing undeserved kindness (grace) to us and true teachings that are totally worthy of being believed. And this theme is shown again in what Jesus said to Nathanael.

GNT Translation notes:John 1:27 He is coming after me, but I am not good enough [to be the servant who unties//even to untie] his sandals.”40 One of them was Andrew, [whose brother was named Simon, and also called Peter//Simon Peter's brother.]46 [Nathanael said,//0] “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” [0//Nathanael asked.] “Come and see,” answered Philip. 51 And he said to them, “I am telling you the truth: you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on [Me,] the Son of Man.”