Idioms in the Bible Explained and a Key to the Original Gospels

Very enjoyable read. Basically this is two books within one cover.Book one is Idioms in the Bible Explained and contains about 70 pages is one-liners organized into groups based on the book they come from. Each one is a Scripture idiom, and a brief interpretation underneath it. This portion of the book is the meat and potatoes of why I bought it. It is a quick reference guide to many idioms to help better understand what specific verses mean. For example, here are a few:The wolf and the lamb shall dwell together. Isa. 11:6-- means "An oppressor and a weak nation shall live together in peace."The weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. Isa. 11:8-- means "A small nation shall be able to handle their deadly enemies."Eat bead in the Kingdom of God. Luke 14:15-- means "Welcomed in the Kingdom of God."These little tidbits help to clarify so many obscure (to us) pieces of Scripture, that it makes this little book well worth having on your shelf. Even if you do not buy into Lamsa's ideas on the NT being written originally in Aramaic, this little book is still great.Book two is "A Key to the Original Gospels" and is a brief story of the Scriptures, cultural history and a bunch of small segments dealing with various topics and verses, almost like an expounded edition of some of the idioms covered before, but more story-like. It explains various subjects like what happened at the wedding at Cana, the word Raca, the rich man, letting the dead bury the dead, the two women grinding concept, and more.The most "interesting" portion of this book was his take on the words of Jesus on the cross, when he said "Eli, Eli, Lmana Sabachthani." He claims that it does not imply anything about being forsaken, but that in the Aramaic means "My God, My God, for this I was kept" and speaks of Jesus crying out that this was his known destiny and the reason he was born. This stands out as the highlight of the whole second book, but it was all enlightening in one way or another. Well worth the read in my opinion.

This book is full of Aramaic idioms from Genesis to Revelations. Sometimes a whole new world opens up when you understand what the scripture author really meant. It is inexpensive, so I regard it a a must-have for a serious Bible student.

This book has some good info in it, but I can't say that all of it is accurate. Lamsa is basing a lot of his beliefs and teachings on his experience in the east, and his language. Languages, idioms, customs all change over time. Period. While him using his experiences to explain some of these things is great, be mindful to check multiple resources from other scholars who are also expert in their fields.Again. The book has some good info. But this should be a supplementary book utilized with other manners, customs, figures of speech, etc, research/reference books.

In the non denominational Feild of religious science and The spirituality community, George M Lamsas books are really the best go to biblical texts. In both the holy bible and idioms of the Bible, George Lamsa was raised speaking Yeshua Ben J(y)osephs native language Which is Aramaic and the relevancy of this is because both Lamsas bible and this book translates straight from the Aramaic texts. In so doing, George Lamsa further illustrâtes and proves to us that the Bible was meant to be a METAPHYSICAL TEXT!!! NOT SOMETHING TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY.” Let there be light” was simply meant to illumine “let there be enlightenment”. I feel as though humans have lived on this world since the beginning which is why enlightenment was needed— to evolve. His explanations proves that everything god and yeshua were talking about were metaphors. Not spells or spooky magical stories and things

"Idioms in the Bible Explained" and "A Key to the Original Gospels" is a helpful handbook to the dedicated reader of Scripture. For example, would the average Sunday school teacher know that "written in the earth" is an Aramaic/Semitic idiom for 'obliterated, forgotten'? Probably not, yet to properly elucidate the prophecies found in the book of Jeremiah one would need to know that idiomatic expression. More importantly this example is but one of many, and so it cannot be overemphasized that to properly understand the thoughts of ancient readers in translation one must understand the idiomatic expressions of their language. To read the literal translation without the deep understanding of these idioms is to become a blind guide to the interpretation of Scripture. Dr. Lamsa has given us a key to walking through these ancient texts on the straight path, the path of true understanding.

If you desire a proper interpretation of key idioms and phrases in the Bible, this book is for you! Not only the verse is interpreted but you are given proper reference so you can locate the information in context, which often "rounds out" the full picture of meaning. This book is easy to use, very helpful for those without extensive or even scholarly background in the Bible, and written by a giant in the field of Bible interpretation: George M. Lamsa. I grew to love each and every verse examined, and I believe you will benefit also.

I am enjoying this book, defiantly not because it is all truth, but because it is very interesting to see how people thought back in 1931, there is a lot that is very comical, for ex: he says Ezekiel 16:26 "and you whored with the sons of Egypt, your neighbours, great of the flesh. And you increased your whoring to provoke me. So he says that "Great of the flesh" Means "men of large sex organs" I'm pretty sure that God doesn't care how big a man's sex organ are?? and it probably means that they were doing a lot of wickedness as were the Egyptians, worshipping false gods.Because the verse before, vs 25 talks about high places and that is were most everybody worshipped their gods.Their is a lot that are just not real idioms. But still the book is ok, not something you sit down and read in one sitting. And we must remember that they didn't have the greatest of translations or the internet were we can actual look things up in the Hebrew language to see what is really meant.

Some things are obscure and difficult to understand in the bible. This book helps make sense of much more and give better, clearer understanding.

Idioms of old time in Palestine and Syria during Jesus times

This book is full of interesting information pertaining to the bible and I learned a lot from reading it l. I Would recommend the book for anyone who is a seeker if truth.

A 104 page book is priced Rs 856. This is exorbitant. True it is printed in America, but an Indian edition could easily be made available.Content: The content is valuable but Old Testament portion is very sketchy and of little value. More references and detail were expected.

Interesting explanations.