“Who’s That Boy?” — Why Saul Doesn’t Recognize David. When the Older Text Removes a Problem the Later Text Creates (1 Samuel 17:55–58). Some textual questions are minor. This is not one of them. In the plain surface flow of many modern translations, Saul watches David go out against Goliath and then asks Abner, “Whose son is this young man?” Abner claims not to know. Saul presses again. David returns with the Philistine’s head, and Saul asks David directly.

Goliath’s Height — Setting the Record Straight. When the Oldest Evidence Disagrees with the Popular Reading (1 Samuel 17:4). Most Christians know the David-and-Goliath story by heart, and many have also heard the traditional detail that Goliath stood “six cubits and a span,” often repeated as nearly ten feet tall. That number has become part of the legend—so familiar that few pause to ask a simple question: is that actually what the oldest biblical evidence says?

Saul’s Age & the Math That Doesn’t Add Up. When God Lets the Numbers Blur to Expose the Heart. The opening line of 1 Samuel 13 has long puzzled readers and translators alike: “Saul was … years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years over Israel.” Both numbers are missing. The Hebrew Masoretic Text leaves blanks where digits should be. Every translation since has been forced to guess.

Bel and the Dragon: God Exposes False Gods. Bel and the Dragon is one of the lesser-known but most striking narratives in the Bible of the early church. Preserved in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) as part of the Book of Daniel, it tells two stories: the defeat of the idol Bel and the destruction of a dragon worshiped as a god in Babylon.

Susanna: Justice, Wisdom, and the God Who Sees. The story of Susanna is one of the most powerful narratives of integrity and justice in the Bible of the early church. A faithful woman is falsely accused of adultery by two corrupt elders who lusted after her. Facing death by false testimony, she cries out to God — and the young prophet Daniel exposes the lies, delivering her from condemnation.

The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men. Most readers of Daniel know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). But in the Bible of the Early Church, the story contains more than just their silent faith. It includes a prayer of confession (the Prayer of Azariah) and a hymn of praise (the Song of the Three Young Men).

The Septuagint (LXX): The Bible of the Early Church. If you’ve ever seen a tiny “LXX” in the footnotes of your Bible and wondered what it meant, you’ve stumbled onto one of the most important—and misunderstood—parts of biblical history. LXX stands for “Septuagint,” the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was the Bible used by Jesus, the apostles, and the early church. And yet, many modern Bibles today rely almost entirely on a different text: the Hebrew Maso