About: Douglas Jacoby

  The Sermon on the Mount: Matt 5:1/8:1 These chapters are the epitome of Jesus’ teaching. A scenario like Exodus 20 (Sinai)—Jesus and Moses Up and down a mountain 10… Read More

The assault: Satan attacks by trying to get Jesus to doubt his identity as Son of God. Jesus’ three temptations correspond to three temptations to which Israel gave in: to… Read More

Review—Some big ideas in Matthew 1-2: The man Jesus is the Christ, son of David and son of Abraham. Yet his lineage (as Matthew relates it) honors a number of… Read More

Hosea 11:1—When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to… Read More

Pagan stargazers! Persia? Babylon? In Ezra 7:8-9, Ezra came from Babylon (modern Iraq) to Jerusalem, taking four months to arrive! The irony of this passage is that outsiders—foreigners (the Magi)—recognize… Read More