A Conversation in the Dark

Last night, my parents, some friends of ours, Chip and Amanda, and Brock and I were watching something on TV when the electricity went out. At first, we were annoyed. When we finally realized that the electricity might be out for a while, mom got out the flashlights and the candles. We began to talk.

We talked about the Bible and how they chose which books were to be placed in the Bible and which ones were left out. Brock and Chip had read a book by Lee Strobel entitled The Case for Christ that talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls and such. I'm reading a wonderful book called Encounters With Christ by Mark E. Moore. It briefly describes every encounter Jesus has as recorded in the scriptures.

We discussed how they understood things differently back then. For example, I've always wondered why there is only one account of Jesus as a boy. I wanted to hear more. In the book I'm reading, the author explains that when the Greeks wrote about their heroes, they gave one story from the person's youth. It usually was during the boys' puberty age because that's when he was transforming from child to man. They did this to show that the man was unique even when he was a boy. Thus, the story of Jesus as a twelve year old sitting in the temple with the teachers after being separated from his parents for 3 days. This was typical in their writing back then and they understood the significance of the story.

It was a great conversation and one we may not have had if the electricity had not gone out!