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About

About me

Hi there! My name is Joel and I'm a Bible Nerd. I love doing deep dives into the Bible and getting into the academic nitty gritty, and then distilling this information into a simpler form that I can share with others. That's where this website came from. 

Being a Bible Nerd sounds off-putting, but I think that every Christian should be a Bible Nerd – it just means that you love the word of God so much that it becomes part of who you are. 

I grew up in a Christian family in the non-denominational tradition. But it wasn't until I went to university that I had to grapple with what I really believed in and why. Combined with my academic background, this process grew into a love for in-depth research of the events, characters, reliability and theology of the Bible. 

Currently, I have a strong interest in Biblical Greek which I am in the process of learning. I am also working on a number of projects, which you can read more about here. I live in Brisbane, Australia with my wife. If you enjoy this blog, please send me a message at joelbjohnson12 {at} gmail.com. 

I pray that you will be blessed by the devotionals, sermons, academic studies and biblical commentary on this website – which will always be free. 

Check out my Facebook and Instagram pages for more content!

Popular posts from this blog

How I added a custom domain to Blogger (for free)

I will preface this post by saying that I am not a web expert by any means. Most of this is compiled from reading various tutorials/forum posts and trial & error. However, it may hopefully save you a bit of time if you are also trying to add a custom domain to your Blogger site.  The Domain Name The first step is to purchase your custom domain. Again, I haven't done a detailed investigation into the best places to purchase domain names from. However, it seems that the 'big name' sellers (e.g. GoDaddy) will often have more expensive prices compared to less well known domain sellers. You could try somewhere like  https://www.namecheap.com .  Because I live in Australia, I was able to get a free .com.au domain from VentraIP for 12 months. They give away 5000 of these domains per year ( https://ventraip.com.au/domain-giveaway ) - because I found it in April, they had only given away about 3000 domains for the year and so I could easily snag one. The continuing domain cost...
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My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?

“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).” (Mt 27:46) At this point, Jesus had been on the cross for up to 6 hours (Mk 15:25; Mt 27:45-46 but see Jn 19:14). The previous night, he had suffered such extreme agony and stress in the garden that He began to sweat blood – a rare medical condition known as hematohidrosis. Modern medical observations have found that this condition is often caused by extreme distress or fear. The fine capillaries near the skin burst and haemorrhage into the sweat glands. As a result, blood actually comes out with the sweat. Although it does not normally cause a significant amount of blood loss, it has the effect of making the skin fragile and tender. Before daybreak, he was spat upon and struck in the face while blindfolded at the Sanhedrin (Mt 26:67; Mk 14:65; Lk 22:64). The ch...
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The Good News of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1-8)

An ivory plaque of Mark the evangelist Mark 1:1-8 reads (my translation): 1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.  2 Just as it was written in Isaiah the prophet,  “Look! I send my messenger before your face, Who will clear the road for you;  3 A voice shouting in the desert, Prepare the road of the Lord, Make his paths straight.”  4 John the Baptiser appeared in the desert, announcing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  5 And all from the region of Judea and all the Jerusalemites were coming out to him, and they were being baptised by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.  6 And John was clothed in camel hair and a leather belt around his waist and he was eating locusts and bush honey.  7 And he was announcing, “One more powerful than me is coming after me, who I am not fit to bend down and loosen his sandal strap.  8 I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you in the Holy Spirit.  ...
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