Month: January 2015

He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24, NKJV.)

After Adam and Eve had sinned and had been driven out of the Garden of Eden, God placed cherubim — special angelic, spiritual creatures (a description of them is found in Ezekiel 1:4-28; 10:1, 15) — and a flaming sword to bar man from re-entry into the garden.  This was to prevent access by man to the “tree of life,” to take its fruit, eat it, and live forever (Genesis 3:22).

Why did God bar man from eating the fruit of that tree?  After all, doesn’t God want man to have everlasting life — to live forever?

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Most evangelical Christians today maintain that the anonymous Letter to the Hebrews could not have been written by the apostle Paul.  For example, the monumental Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (published 1993 by Inter-Varsity Press Academic, edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid) does not include the Letter to the Hebrews among those written by Paul. Some commentaries and books on the New Testament suggest that Apollos or Barnabas, instead, could have written this letter. Others also suggest Priscilla.

One Bible commentary has even judged that, because of the lack of a clear identity of the author of this letter, it would be presumptuous for anyone to suggest any possible author.

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