Featured studies · 177 live, 22 in preparation
Stories
177 featured studies ask what happened, and what the scene was really like, listed by the part of the canon each one stands in.
What these studies ask
The events themselves: what happened, where the retelling has drifted from the text, and what the scene was really like.
The parts of the canon
- Torah24 live
- History37 live, 5 in preparation
- Wisdom and Poetry5 live
- Prophets17 live
- Gospels45 live, 7 in preparation
- Acts and the Letters32 live, 10 in preparation
- Revelation1 live
- The Apocrypha16 live
The stories on the index of every featured study, 177 studies
Torah
24 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cain and Abel | The account of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 stands between the fall of Genesis 3 and the genealogy of Adam in Genesis 5. | Genesis | 23 linked studies |
| Egypt's Famine Years and the Land of Pharaoh | Genesis 41 and 47 tell how Egypt stored grain in seven years of plenty and how the land of Egypt became Pharaoh's in the famine that followed. | Genesis | 8 linked studies |
| Enoch Walked With God | Enoch is the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah in the register of Genesis 5. | Genesis | 16 linked studies |
| Jacob Wrestles the Angel | The account of the night at the Jabbok in Genesis 32:22 to 32 stands between Jacob's prayer for rescue from Esau and the meeting of the two brothers in Genesis 33. | Genesis | 20 linked studies |
| Jacob's Ladder | A fleeing deceiver lies down on a stone and meets God, a ladder set between heaven and earth that Jesus claims as Himself. | Genesis | 20 linked studies |
| Sodom and Gomorrah | The account of Sodom and Gomorrah stands in Genesis between the covenant of circumcision in Genesis 17 and Abraham's stay in Gerar in Genesis 20. | Genesis | 24 linked studies |
| The Binding of Isaac | The strongest type in Genesis of the Father offering the Son, the beloved son, the wood, the ram, and the mountain that looks to Calvary. | Genesis | 26 linked studies |
| The Creation Week | Six ordinary days: God forms three realms, then fills them, and crowns the whole 'very good.' | Genesis | 27 linked studies |
| The Flood | A real, global Deluge: judgment and mercy running together, pivoting on five words: 'And God remembered Noah.' | Genesis | 26 linked studies |
| The Tower of Babel: Genesis 11 | Humanity unites to make a name against heaven; God confuses the tongues and scatters the nations, the scattering Pentecost reverses. | Genesis | 20 linked studies |
| Moses in the Bulrushes | Exodus 2:1 to 10 tells how a Levite child, hidden three months, was found among the reeds and named by the princess who drew him out. | Exodus | 13 linked studies |
| Moses Strikes the Rock | Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 tell of water from a rock at Rephidim in the first year out of Egypt and at Kadesh in the fortieth. | Exodus | 22 linked studies |
| The Red Sea Crossing | Exodus 13:17 to 15:21 tells of a night walk through the sea on dry ground, with the Egyptian army drowned behind at daybreak. | Exodus | 24 linked studies |
| The Ten Commandments | God spoke ten words to the whole camp of Israel from Mount Sinai, and later wrote them on two tablets of stone. | Exodus | 39 linked studies |
| The Ten Plagues | The 3×3+1 architecture of Exodus 7–12, the judgment on the gods of Egypt honestly graded, and Pharaoh's hardening heart set out verse by verse. | Exodus | 19 linked studies |
| Nadab and Abihu: the unauthorized fire | The account of Leviticus 10, read with the climb of Exodus 24, the record of Numbers 3 and the warning that opens Leviticus 16. | Leviticus | 15 linked studies |
| Baal of Peor | Numbers 25 with Numbers 31:8 and 16, and five texts that remember the day, from Deuteronomy 4 to Revelation 2. | Numbers | 10 linked studies |
| Balaam's Donkey | The account fills Numbers 22 to 24, and Peter, Jude and Revelation later name its prophet as a warning. | Numbers | 15 linked studies |
| Caleb and the Twelve Spies | The account of the spies at Kadesh in Numbers 13 to 14 and of Caleb's claim to Hebron in Joshua 14, with the thread of the Anakim to Gath. | Numbers | 23 linked studies |
| Korah's Rebellion | The account fills Numbers 16, and Numbers 17 gives God's answer in Aaron's staff. | Numbers | 17 linked studies |
| Sihon and Og | The account of Israel's victories over Sihon of Heshbon and Og of Bashan in Numbers 21:21 to 35 and Deuteronomy 2:24 to 3:17. | Numbers | 10 linked studies |
| The Daughters of Zelophehad | The petition of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah in Numbers 27, the appeal of their clan in Numbers 36, and the land they received in Joshua 17. | Numbers | 9 linked studies |
| The Wilderness Generation | Numbers' wilderness cycle read the way the New Testament reads it, a standing warning to the church, not just a record of the past. | Numbers | 42 linked studies |
| The death of Moses | The account of Deuteronomy 34, read with the sentence of Numbers 20, the handover of Numbers 27 and Deuteronomy 31, and the first words of Joshua. | Deuteronomy | 17 linked studies |
History
37 live, 5 in preparation
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Esther: For Such a Time as This | Queen Esther went to King Xerxes without being summoned, at the risk of her life, to plead for her people. | Joshua | 5 linked studies |
| Luther at Worms | Martin Luther stood before the Emperor Charles V and the princes of the empire at Worms in April 1521 and would not take back his books. | Joshua | 4 linked studies |
| Rahab and the Scarlet Cord | Her confession of the LORD as God in heaven above and on earth below saved her family, and Hebrews, James and Matthew each name her. | Joshua | 24 linked studies |
| The Boldness of Peter and John | Before the high priest's council in Jerusalem, Peter and John refused an order to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. | Joshua | 11 linked studies |
| The Canaanite Conquest | Joshua 6 to 11 tells how Israel took Canaan, from the fall of Jericho to the burning of Hazor, and why the text says the land changed hands. | Joshua | 29 linked studies |
| The covenant at Shechem | Joshua 24:1 to 28 records the covenant made between the LORD and Israel in Joshua's last years, sealed by a written record and a standing stone. | Joshua | 15 linked studies |
| The Crossing of the Jordan | Under Joshua, Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan at harvest, when the river overflowed its banks. | Joshua | 16 linked studies |
| The Fall of Jericho | No siege engine, no battering ram: a city falls to a trumpet and a shout, with Rahab saved and Achan destroyed. | Joshua | 24 linked studies |
| Abimelech and Jotham's Fable | Gideon's son Abimelech killed seventy brothers to become king at Shechem and died three years later at Thebez. | Judges | 9 linked studies |
| Ehud and the Deliverance from Moab | The second judge of Israel came from Benjamin, and he ended Moab's rule over Jericho in a single day. | Judges | 11 linked studies |
| Gideon's Fleece | Judges 6 and 7, from the winepress at Ophrah to the rout of Midian in the Valley of Jezreel. | Judges | 12 linked studies |
| The Judges Cycle | Judges' six-stage formula run six times, with the 'land had rest' notice vanishing after Gideon. | Judges | 25 linked studies |
| The Levite's concubine and the war on Benjamin | The last chapters of Judges record a crime and the near loss of Benjamin; a concubine was a wife of lower rank. | Judges | 7 linked studies |
| David and Goliath | Israel and the Philistines face each other across the valley of Elah for forty days before David answers Goliath's challenge. | 1 Samuel | 22 linked studies |
| David and Jonathan: 1 Samuel 18 & 20 | A covenant ledger lines up four things Jonathan swore against where each was paid, the last payment landing decades after his death. | 1 Samuel | 15 linked studies |
| Jonah, the Man Who Ran | The book of Jonah follows one prophet from his flight at sea to his anger at the sparing of Nineveh. | 1 Samuel | 5 linked studies |
| Samuel Hears His Name — 1 Samuel 3 | This page walks 1 Samuel 3 as an iconic story: what actually happened, where the retellings drift from the text, the setting behind the silence, and what the chapter leaves unanswered. | 1 Samuel | 8 linked studies |
| Saul at Endor — 1 Samuel 28 | This page walks 1 Samuel 28 as an iconic story, from the three closed doors of prayer that sent Saul to a medium to the eighteen-century argument over who or what appeared. | 1 Samuel | 12 linked studies |
| The Ark and Dagon — 1 Samuel 4–6 | This page follows the ark's seven-month journey through five stations in six passes: the story, where retellings drift, the customs behind it, what Scripture leaves unsaid, where it points, and the commentators' own readings. | 1 Samuel | 9 linked studies |
| The Rechabites | Jeremiah set wine before the Rechabites in the temple, and they refused it because their forefather Jonadab had commanded them never to drink it. | 1 Samuel | 2 linked studies |
| The Rise of the Monarchy and the Law of the King | Israel's request for a king in 1 Samuel 8 to 12, read beside the law of the king in Deuteronomy 17 and the prophet Hosea. | 1 Samuel | 11 linked studies |
| David and Bathsheba: 2 Samuel 11-12 | The page builds Nathan's parable as a courtroom exhibit and lays the king's own verdict against what it cost him, tracked chapter by chapter through the rest of 2 Samuel. | 2 Samuel | 16 linked studies |
| Daniel's Open Window | Daniel served Darius the Mede as one of three administrators over 120 satraps, and the officials beside him plotted his fall. | 1 Kings | 9 linked studies |
| Elijah on Carmel — the Still Small Voice | The contest on Carmel where fire falls and 'the LORD, he is God,' followed by collapse at Horeb and an answer in a still small voice. | 1 Kings | 12 linked studies |
| Naboth's Vineyard — 1 Kings 21 | Naboth refuses to sell his vineyard to King Ahab out of obedience to Israel's land law, so Jezebel has him killed by forged letters and false witnesses that keep every legal form. | 1 Kings | 9 linked studies |
| Solomon and the Two Mothers — 1 Kings 3 | This page walks the chapter in six passes: the story itself, six places retellings drift from the text, the world of a king who heard cases in person, what Scripture leaves unsaid, the New Testament's own greater-than-Solomon reading, and where two old commentators disagree over one Hebrew word. | 1 Kings | 6 linked studies |
| Elisha — the Double Portion | Elisha asks for his master's spirit doubled at the Jordan, and performs a miracle-catalog that doubles Elijah's in scope. | 2 Kings | 6 linked studies |
| Hezekiah and Sennacherib | Sennacherib of Assyria marched against Hezekiah of Judah in 701 BC. | 2 Kings | 9 linked studies |
| Hezekiah's Sundial, 2 Kings 20 & Isaiah 38 | This page follows 2 Kings 20 past the healing and the backward shadow to the part most retellings skip: the Babylonian envoys the sign brought, and the exile sentence that followed them. | 2 Kings | 8 linked studies |
| Josiah Finds the Book (2 Kings 22–23) | The page follows the found scroll from Hilkiah's report through Huldah's oracle to the covenant renewal and Passover, using a cascade diagram that widens with the book's reach and narrows back to the sentence still unturned. | 2 Kings | 12 linked studies |
| Naaman the Leper — 2 Kings 5 | A captured Israelite girl's one sentence sends an Aramean general to a prophet who will not even come to the door, and Naaman is healed by washing in the Jordan seven times. | 2 Kings | 11 linked studies |
| The Fall of Samaria and the Indictment of 2 Kings 17 | The Assyrian siege of Samaria in the reign of Hoshea, the deportation of Israel, and the settlers brought into its towns. | 2 Kings | 10 linked studies |
| The Floating Axe Head — 2 Kings 6 | This page walks the seven verses of 2 Kings 6 beat by beat: the story, five common misreadings, the school of prophets behind it, and an honest note that the New Testament never quotes this passage. | 2 Kings | 3 linked studies |
| The Last Kings of Judah and the Fall of Jerusalem | Kings, Chronicles and Jeremiah each tell the end of the kingdom of Judah. | 2 Kings | 18 linked studies |
| What the Chronicler Leaves Out, and Why | How 1 and 2 Chronicles retell Samuel and Kings for the exiles who came home, with the stories they drop, the stories they add, and four readings of the choice. | 1 Chronicles | 7 linked studies |
| The Exile and the Return | Three deportations, seventy years reckoned two ways, Cyrus's decree corroborated by the Cyrus Cylinder, and three returns under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. | Ezra | 35 linked studies |
| The Wall — the 52-Day Rebuild — Nehemiah 1–6 | A four-month burden, a night ride around the ruins, and a wall finished in fifty-two days despite mockery and conspiracy. | Nehemiah | 8 linked studies |
| Shishak's invasion and the Bubastite Portal | Planned in the queue for 1 Kings. | 1 Kings | In preparation |
| Athaliah and the six hidden years | Planned in the queue for 2 Kings. | 2 Kings | In preparation |
| Elisha's last act and the arrows | Planned in the queue for 2 Kings. | 2 Kings | In preparation |
| Gedaliah and the remnant in Egypt | Planned in the queue for 2 Kings. | 2 Kings | In preparation |
| Jehoiachin released and the lamp of David | Planned in the queue for 2 Kings. | 2 Kings | In preparation |
Wisdom and Poetry
5 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barnabas, a Good Man | The Berean text names Barnabas in 35 verses, 30 of them in Acts 4 to 15 and five in three of Paul's letters. | Psalms | 7 linked studies |
| Grumbling, the Opposite of Thanks | Exodus and Numbers record Israel complaining against Moses, Aaron and the LORD during its years in the wilderness. | Psalms | 10 linked studies |
| Job's Integrity | Job held to his integrity through the loss of his children, his wealth and his health, and he defended it against his friends with oaths before God. | Psalms | 5 linked studies |
| Now Thank We All Our God | Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran archdeacon, wrote this hymn of thanks as a grace at table. | Psalms | 3 linked studies |
| The Ten Lepers | Luke 17:11 to 19 records ten lepers cleansed by Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, of whom one, a Samaritan, came back to give thanks. | Psalms | 7 linked studies |
Prophets
17 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isaiah in the Temple | In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord on a throne in the temple and offered himself as God's messenger. | Isaiah | 12 linked studies |
| Daniel in Babylon | Daniel served the kings of Babylon and Persia from Nebuchadnezzar to Cyrus and kept the habits of his faith in their courts. | Lamentations | 7 linked studies |
| Polycarp: Eighty-Six Years | Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, told the Roman proconsul that he had served Christ eighty-six years and would not deny Him, and he was put to death at Smyrna in the second century. | Lamentations | 8 linked studies |
| The Valley of Dry Bones — Ezekiel 37 | Bones, then bodies, then breath: ruach as the word the whole vision turns on, and two sticks joined under one Shepherd-King. | Ezekiel | 10 linked studies |
| Daniel in the Lions' Den: Daniel 6 | A seventy-year timeline shows Daniel's age by the shape of the evidence rather than by assertion, then the page corrects seven common drifts in how the story gets retold and names four questions the chapter leaves silent. | Daniel | 14 linked studies |
| Faith Under Fire, the Furnace and the Lions' Den | Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 told as facing trials, fifty years apart, God present inside the sentence rather than instead of it. | Daniel | 15 linked studies |
| The Fourth Man in the Fire — Daniel 3 | This page walks the six beats of the story: the Hebrew names Babylon renamed, what Daniel 3 actually says, the true context of the golden image and the furnace, and where the story points in Christ. | Daniel | 8 linked studies |
| The Silent Years | Between his return from Egypt as an infant and his baptism in the Jordan near age thirty, Scripture gives Jesus one narrated story: found in the temple at twelve. | Daniel | 7 linked studies |
| The Writing on the Wall (Daniel 5) | Each word on the wall opens to show its weight, its verb, and the sentence it delivered, and a three-rung diagram explains why 'third ruler' was actually the highest offer Belshazzar had left to give. | Daniel | 9 linked studies |
| Gomer, Bought Back — Hosea 1–3 | A prophet commanded to marry an unfaithful woman, three children named as verdicts and reversed, and the price paid to buy her back. | Hosea | 15 linked studies |
| The Sign of Jonah | Asked for a sign, Jesus gives exactly one: Jonah's three days and three nights, pointing to His own three days in the heart of the earth, and a greater than Jonah is here. | Jonah | 14 linked studies |
| Nathan Before David | Second Samuel 12 tells of a prophet's case at court, a king's confession and the death of his son. | Micah | 7 linked studies |
| Wilberforce and the Slave Trade | William Wilberforce was the parliamentary head of the campaign against the British slave trade, which a committee began in London in 1787. | Micah | 4 linked studies |
| The Fall of Nineveh, 612 BC | The armies of Babylon and the Medes besieged and took Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. | Nahum | 7 linked studies |
| The Entry into Jerusalem | All four Gospels tell how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey while the crowds hailed Him as king. | Zechariah | 15 linked studies |
| The Night Visions of Zechariah | The eight visions and the crowning of Zechariah 1:7 to 6:15, given to the people of the return while they rebuilt the temple. | Zechariah | 9 linked studies |
| The Forerunner and the Refiner — Malachi 3:1; 4:5–6 | Malachi's promised messenger and returning Elijah, both answered in John the Baptist, and a refiner's fire that purifies before it judges. | Malachi | 10 linked studies |
Gospels
45 live, 7 in preparation
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corrie ten Boom and the Guard | In 1947 Corrie ten Boom, who had survived Ravensbrück, met a former guard of the camp after she spoke in a church in Munich, and he asked her to forgive him. | Matthew | 10 linked studies |
| Gethsemane (The Garden Called the Oil Press) | Gethsemane walks the six-beat Iconic Story shape through the three prayers Jesus prayed in the garden, His condition shifting from 'if it can pass' to 'since it cannot,' with the disciples asleep each time He returns. | Matthew | 15 linked studies |
| Joseph Forgives His Brothers | Genesis 42 to 45 tells how Joseph tested his brothers and then made himself known to them, and Genesis 50:15 to 21 returns to the family after the funeral in Canaan. | Matthew | 10 linked studies |
| Men Who Read the Sky — The Wise Men and the Star, Matthew 2 | Six places the carol drifts from what Matthew actually wrote are named one by one, then three readings of the star, natural event, supernatural light, angel, are laid out side by side with their holders, strengths, and difficulties, unresolved. | Matthew | 7 linked studies |
| Miracles of Jesus | Thirty-five recorded works of power across the four Gospels — healings, nature, raisings from the dead, and deliverance — every one anchored to its passage, walked as a ledger. | Matthew | 3 linked studies |
| Peter's Confession | Peter's answer to the question Jesus put to the Twelve near Caesarea Philippi, as Matthew, Mark and Luke record it. | Matthew | 10 linked studies |
| Peter's Denial — Matthew 26 · Mark 14 · Luke 22 · John 18 | This page lines up all four gospel accounts of Peter's denial side by side, since they do not fully agree on who accused him or exactly where he was standing. | Matthew | 8 linked studies |
| The Baptism of Jesus — Matthew 3 | This page walks Matthew 3:13-17 in six beats: the scene itself, five places the retelling drifts from the text, five readings of why He was baptised, four honest gaps the Gospels leave open, the Father's sentence stitching together Psalm 2 and Isaiah 42, and how the early church read the river. | Matthew | 14 linked studies |
| The Crucifixion | The day Jesus died on a Roman cross at Golgotha, told from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. | Matthew | 34 linked studies |
| The Empty Tomb | All four Gospels report that women found the tomb of Jesus open and his body gone. | Matthew | 13 linked studies |
| The Flight to Egypt — Matthew 2 | This page follows Matthew's account of the flight into Egypt beat by beat: the story itself, where the popular retelling drifts from the text, the history behind it, and where the New Testament reads it as a new exodus. | Matthew | 9 linked studies |
| The Rich Young Ruler | This page shows why Jesus's command to this one man was not a universal rule, citing Zacchaeus and the women who supported His ministry as counter-cases. | Matthew | 9 linked studies |
| The Temptation in the Wilderness — Matthew 4 | This page walks Matthew 4 and Luke 4 through six beats: the story, what the text says against popular versions, the desert and temple setting, what the Gospels leave silent, the second Adam comparison, and old commentary on the scene. | Matthew | 12 linked studies |
| The Transfiguration — Matthew 17 · Mark 9 · Luke 9 | This page walks Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9 through six beats: the story, what the three accounts say against smoothed-over retellings, the unnamed mountain, what none of the Gospels tell, the Father's two declarations, and how the church has read it. | Matthew | 21 linked studies |
| The Trial of Jesus | Jesus stood before six hearings in about twelve hours: Annas, Caiaphas and the council by night, the full Sanhedrin at daybreak, Pilate, Herod, and Pilate a second time. | Matthew | 6 linked studies |
| Upon This Rock | Matthew | 12 linked studies | |
| Walking on Water — Matthew 14:22–33 | This page walks Matthew 14:22-33 and its Mark and John parallels in six passes: the story plainly told, where retellings drift from the text, the true distance and hours, what Scripture leaves unsaid, what the scene reveals of Christ, and the old readers on Peter. | Matthew | 11 linked studies |
| Calming the Storm: Mark 4:35–41 | This page walks the storm on the Sea of Galilee verse by verse, then lines up three psalms that credit stilling the sea to the LORD alone against what happened in that fishing boat. | Mark | 12 linked studies |
| The Widow's Mites | The page unpacks what the two mites were actually worth and why proportion, not amount, is Jesus's measure. | Mark | 10 linked studies |
| Be It Unto Me — The Annunciation, Luke 1 | This page walks Gabriel's visit to Mary in six passes, pairing her question with Zechariah's from one chapter earlier, then tracing what Scripture leaves unsaid and how the rest of the New Testament reads the scene. | Luke | 12 linked studies |
| Jesus at Twelve (Luke 2) | This page works the six beats of an Iconic Story: the plain account of Luke 2:41-52, six places the popular retelling drifts from the text, the pilgrimage customs behind it, and what the eighteen silent years do and do not tell us. | Luke | 9 linked studies |
| Mary and Martha: Luke 10:38–42 | The page walks the scene in six beats: what Luke's Greek actually says, the same two sisters across three scenes in two Gospels, the questions the text leaves unanswered, and what the moment shows about Jesus. | Luke | 9 linked studies |
| Mercy in the Plague Years | Clergy at two cities of the third century wrote of the faithful who stayed with the dying through an epidemic, in letters, a sermon and a life of a bishop that still survive. | Luke | 7 linked studies |
| The Canticles — the Four Songs of Luke 1–2 | Magnificat, Benedictus, Gloria, Nunc Dimittis: the earliest Christian hymnody, sung over the coming of Christ. | Luke | 3 linked studies |
| The First People Told — The Shepherds of Bethlehem, Luke 2 | This page walks Luke 2:8-20 in six stages: the story plainly told, what the text says against popular retellings, the shepherds' true setting, what Scripture leaves silent, the titles the angel names, and what old commentators heard in it. | Luke | 11 linked studies |
| The Good Samaritan | This page follows the lawyer's two questions and the road itself, then shows how Jesus reverses the question from who qualifies for love to who acted like a neighbor. | Luke | 16 linked studies |
| The Prodigal Son | The page walks the parable in five beats, from the complaint that provoked it through the far country, the rehearsed speech, and the father's run, to the second son left standing outside the music. | Luke | 15 linked studies |
| The Rich Fool | This page follows the rich fool's soliloquy clause by clause, then God's one-sentence answer that ends his plans that same night. | Luke | 10 linked studies |
| The Road to Emmaus — Luke 24:13–35 | This page walks Luke 24:13-35 through six beats: the plain story, five places the popular retelling drifts from the text, the seven-mile distance checked against Josephus, the silences the chapter leaves open, and Luke 24:27 as the charter verse for reading Christ in the Old Testament. | Luke | 13 linked studies |
| Zacchaeus | This page reads Zacchaeus as the counter-case to the rich young ruler: a rich man who gives away half his goods before Jesus ever commands it. | Luke | 14 linked studies |
| Feeding the Five Thousand, John 6:1–15 | This page walks the only miracle all four Gospels record through the six-beat Iconic Story shape: the plain telling, a side-by-side ledger of all four accounts, the true context, what the text leaves unanswered, an Old Testament shadow, and the old commentators on the leftovers. | John | 14 linked studies |
| In the World, Not of It | This page opens the prayer behind the popular phrase 'in the world, not of it,' John 17:14 to 18, and shows the one request Jesus refused to make: that His people be taken out of the world rather than kept in it. | John | 5 linked studies |
| Jesus Stills the Storm | On the Sea of Galilee a windstorm swamped the disciples' boat and dropped to a perfect calm at Jesus' word. | John | 6 linked studies |
| Jesus Wept | Scripture records Jesus weeping three times: at Lazarus's tomb, with the raising of Lazarus only verses away; over Jerusalem, a city that would not know its day; and in Gethsemane, with strong crying and tears before the cross. | John | 5 linked studies |
| Nicodemus at Night. John 3 | A ruling-council member comes to Jesus after dark with a compliment and is answered with a new birth, a bronze serpent, and John 3:16. | John | 13 linked studies |
| The Cleansing of the Temple — John 2 · Matthew 21 | This page walks John 2:13-22 and Matthew 21:12-17 in six beats: the scene itself, six places the common retelling drifts from the text, the true context of the temple courts, what the Gospels leave unanswered, what the scene reveals of Him, and how the early church read it. | John | 15 linked studies |
| The Hour of John | John marks the whole story of Jesus with one recurring word: the hour. | John | 4 linked studies |
| The Man Who Asked to Touch — John 20:24–29 | A three-condition checklist lays Thomas's own demand from verse 25 beside what the text actually records, and only one of the three is ever confirmed. | John | 9 linked studies |
| The Messianic Miracles | Three works Scripture presents as unprecedented — a Jewish leper cleansed, a mute demoniac freed, a man born blind given sight — the crowd's question, the Pharisees' verdict, and the historical claim behind them, steelmanned honestly. | John | 3 linked studies |
| The Passion & Resurrection, John 18–21 | John shapes the Passion around one contrast: Jesus' sovereign self-possession against the collapse of everyone around Him. | John | 16 linked studies |
| The Raising of Lazarus — John 11 | This page walks John 11 in six beats: the story, six details the retellings tend to skip, a to-scale timeline of the delay, what Scripture stays silent on, and what the sign reveals about Jesus. | John | 10 linked studies |
| The Seven Signs — John's Book of Signs | This page lays out John's seven chosen signs in order, from Cana to Lazarus, and pairs each one with the discourse that explains it. | John | 11 linked studies |
| The Upper Room & the Farewell — John 13–17 | The towel, the new commandment, the promise of the Paraclete, the true vine, and the High-Priestly Prayer for every future believer by name. | John | 18 linked studies |
| The Woman at the Well — John 4 | A ten-turn thread lays out the whole conversation verse by verse, His lines and hers side by side, before six places the retellings drift from John's own words are named. | John | 13 linked studies |
| The World's Hatred | This page traces the world's hatred to its source in John 15 and Matthew 10, then shows how the hostility, the command it carries, and the injustice of it were all foretold in advance. | John | 7 linked studies |
| The mission of the Twelve | Planned in the queue for Matthew. | Matthew | In preparation |
| The saints raised at the death of Jesus | Planned in the queue for Matthew. | Matthew | In preparation |
| The call of the first disciples | Planned in the queue for Luke. | Luke | In preparation |
| The Gerasene demoniac and Jairus's daughter | Planned in the queue for Luke. | Luke | In preparation |
| The widow of Nain | Planned in the queue for Luke. | Luke | In preparation |
| The death of Peter | Planned in the queue for John. | John | In preparation |
| The woman caught in adultery | Planned in the queue for John. | John | In preparation |
Acts and the Letters
32 live, 10 in preparation
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) | This page walks Acts 5:1-11 on the six-beat iconic-story pattern, drawing the chapter's own three-hour gap as a clock and naming what the text does not say rather than filling the silence. | Acts | 5 linked studies |
| Cornelius and Peter, Acts 10 | This page walks Acts 10 as two visions moving toward each other, a Roman officer's angel and a fisherman's vision of a sheet, and charts the exact order of events showing the Holy Spirit falling before anyone is baptized. | Acts | 9 linked studies |
| Paul and Silas at Midnight — Acts 16 | This page walks Acts 16:16-40 in six parts: the story itself, six places the common retelling drifts from the text, the Roman law behind the beating, what the text leaves unanswered, where the night points to Christ, and how early commentators read the midnight song. | Acts | 11 linked studies |
| Paul before Agrippa — Acts 26 | This page sets both honest readings of Agrippa's famous reply side by side without picking a winner, and lays out who was actually in the room: the last of the Herods, his sister Bernice, and a governor only days into the job. | Acts | 5 linked studies |
| Paul's Shipwreck — Acts 27–28 | This page runs the fourteen days as a ship's log, verse by verse, then covers the seamanship a nineteenth-century sailor checked against the real Mediterranean and answers the old objection about Malta's snakes. | Acts | 5 linked studies |
| Peter Freed from Prison — Acts 12 | This page walks Acts 12 in six parts: the story itself, six places retellings drift from the text, the Roman guard and festival setting, what the chapter leaves unexplained, where the rescue points to Christ, and how the church has read it. | Acts | 5 linked studies |
| Philip and the Ethiopian — Acts 8 | This page sets the law that excluded eunuchs from worship side by side with Isaiah's own promise to them, and shows both meeting in one scene on a desert road. | Acts | 6 linked studies |
| Stephen, the First Martyr — Acts 6–7 | This page follows Stephen's story in six passes: what happened, where retellings drift from the text, the temple argument behind his sermon, what Scripture leaves unsaid, the Son of Man he saw standing, and what the church took from his death. | Acts | 21 linked studies |
| The Ascension — Acts 1:1–11 · Luke 24:50–53 | This page walks the ascension in six passes: the story, where retellings drift, the place and the priestly posture, what Scripture leaves unsaid, what the New Testament says it started, and how the early church read it. | Acts | 11 linked studies |
| The Damascus Road — Acts 9 | This page walks Acts 9's account of Saul's conversion in six beats, then lines up all three tellings of the same morning side by side, from Luke's narration to Paul's own retellings before a crowd and before a king. | Acts | 7 linked studies |
| Hope in the Cell | The apostle Paul under guard at Rome and John Bunyan in Bedford jail each wrote about hope while held. | Romans | 5 linked studies |
| See How They Love One Another | Tertullian reported the saying at Carthage, and the accounts of care for the sick come from Alexandria, Carthage and Caesarea in the third and fourth centuries. | 1 Corinthians | 7 linked studies |
| Gain All You Can, Give All You Can | John Wesley taught the Methodists three rules for money, and he kept them in his own accounts until his sight failed in 1790. | 2 Corinthians | 9 linked studies |
| Joseph and Potiphar's Wife | Genesis 39 tells in twenty-three verses how a slave in Egypt refused his master's wife and went to prison on her charge. | Galatians | 9 linked studies |
| The Antioch Confrontation | At Antioch, Peter stopped eating with Gentile believers when men came from James, and Paul opposed him to his face, in public. | Galatians | 10 linked studies |
| David and Mephibosheth | King David sought out Mephibosheth, the lame son of Jonathan, gave him Saul's land and seated him at the king's table. | Ephesians | 8 linked studies |
| Ruth's Kindness to Naomi | Ruth the Moabite left her own land to stay with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi and gleaned in Bethlehem to feed them both. | Ephesians | 9 linked studies |
| Augustine's Three Answers | Augustine's Letter 118 of 410 answered a student's questions about Cicero with a lesson on pride and praise. | Philippians | 2 linked studies |
| David Danced Before the Ark | 2 Samuel 6 records the ark of God brought into the City of David on its second attempt, with King David dancing before it. | Philippians | 7 linked studies |
| Moses, the Most Humble Man | Numbers 12 calls Moses the most humble man on earth in the middle of a quarrel with his brother and sister. | Philippians | 10 linked studies |
| The Pharisee and the Tax Collector | Luke 18:9 to 14 sets a Pharisee's prayer of self-praise beside the prayer of a tax collector. | Philippians | 7 linked studies |
| The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment | The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is a book of sermons on Philippians 4:11 by Jeremiah Burroughs, printed after his death. | Philippians | 7 linked studies |
| Paul the Tentmaker | Acts and Paul's letters tell of an apostle who worked with his hands in the cities where he founded churches. | Colossians | 9 linked studies |
| Paul's Last Imprisonment and Death | Paul's last imprisonment in Rome, his first defence and his last letter, set beside what the early church recorded of his death under Nero. | 2 Timothy | 8 linked studies |
| Abraham's Three Visitors | Genesis 18:1 to 15 tells of the meal Abraham gave three visitors at the Oaks of Mamre and of the son the LORD promised to Sarah there. | Hebrews | 9 linked studies |
| George Müller and the Orphans of Bristol | George Müller, a pastor born in Prussia, cared for the orphans of Bristol for nearly sixty-two years, until his death. | Hebrews | 6 linked studies |
| I Believe; Help My Unbelief | Mark's Gospel records a boy whom the disciples could not heal and the confession of mixed faith that his father made to Jesus. | Hebrews | 8 linked studies |
| I Can Plod | William Carey was an English missionary in Bengal, and his nephew Eustace Carey published his Memoir in Boston in 1836. | Hebrews | 3 linked studies |
| Lydia and the House Church | Acts 16:11 to 40 records the stay of Paul and Silas in a Roman colony, from the Sabbath at the river to their release from prison. | Hebrews | 10 linked studies |
| The Shunammite Woman and Elisha | The story stands in 2 Kings 4:8 to 37 and 8:1 to 6, among the deeds of the prophet Elisha. | Hebrews | 6 linked studies |
| Abraham and Sarah: The Twenty-Five Years | Genesis 12 to 21 follows Abraham and Sarah from the LORD's promise at Haran to the birth of their son Isaac in their old age. | James | 12 linked studies |
| The Patience of Job | Job 1 to 2 and 42 record the trial and the restoration of Job of Uz, whom James 5:11 holds up to believers for his perseverance. | James | 11 linked studies |
| Paul and Barnabas at Lystra | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| Paul's First Mission | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| The collection for Jerusalem | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| The sons of Sceva and the burned books | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| the-azusa-street-revival | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| the-great-awakening | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| the-great-schism | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| the-second-great-awakening | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| the-welsh-revival | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
| wesley-and-the-methodist-revival | Planned in the queue for Acts. | Acts | In preparation |
Revelation
1 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| John on Patmos, Revelation 1 | The page walks Revelation 1 as a story: what John saw, the Old Testament passages every feature of the vision comes from, the real history of Patmos exile, and what the chapter deliberately leaves out. | Revelation | 7 linked studies |
The Apocrypha
16 live
| The study | In one sentence | Book | Doors |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Great Is Truth.” The Three Guardsmen | Three royal guardsmen answer what is strongest, wine, the king, or women, and the third answer swerves into Truth, winning the contest and a temple. | Apocrypha | 2 linked studies |
| Asmodeus and the Unseen War | A demon named Asmodeus kills seven bridegrooms to stop one covenant marriage, until the angel Raphael chases him to Egypt and binds him. | Apocrypha | 6 linked studies |
| Ezra's Questions God Answers | Written a generation after the temple fell in AD 70, this book pours the era's grief into Ezra's questions about why the wicked prosper and why Zion suffered. | Apocrypha | 2 linked studies |
| Hanukkah: the Feast the Revolt Made | Hanukkah began as Judas Maccabeus's decree to keep the temple's rededication every year for eight days, the only biblical-era feast founded between the Testaments. | Apocrypha | 8 linked studies |
| Heliodorus in the Treasury | A royal officer sent to seize the Jerusalem temple treasury is struck down by a rider and two young men before he can touch it, then carried out helpless. | Apocrypha | 3 linked studies |
| Judas Maccabeus, the Hammer | Judas Maccabeus led an outnumbered guerrilla army for six years on the creed that with the God of heaven it is all one to deliver by many or by few, the same faith Jonathan spoke at Michmash. | Apocrypha | 3 linked studies |
| Judith/Judith The Widow | Judith 7 to 16 in the King James Apocrypha, from the siege of Bethulia to the widow's song. | Apocrypha | 1 linked study |
| Raphael, the Angel on the Road | A hired travel guide walks nine chapters beside Tobias, guiding, healing, and binding a demon, before revealing himself as the angel Raphael. | Apocrypha | 3 linked studies |
| Susanna and the Two Judges | Two judges threaten Susanna with death unless she sins with them, and she chooses death over sin. | Apocrypha | 3 linked studies |
| The God Who Gets Named | Canonical Esther never once names God, but the six Greek additions supply prayers, a prophetic dream, and the divine name throughout. | Apocrypha | 3 linked studies |
| The Idol Who Ate Nothing | Daniel proves the idol Bel is not alive by sifting ashes across the sealed temple floor and finding the priests' footprints in the morning, since they had been sneaking in nightly to eat the offered food themselves. | Apocrypha | 3 linked studies |
| The Ninety-Four Books | In a vision around AD 100, Ezra re-dictates the burned Scriptures, and heaven splits the result into books published openly and books kept for the wise alone. | Apocrypha | 5 linked studies |
| The Road to Ecbatana | Tobit's journey runs through five real places of the Assyrian exile, from Nineveh through the Tigris to Ecbatana and back. | Apocrypha | 2 linked studies |
| The Seven Brothers and Their Mother | Seven brothers and their mother are tortured to death one at a time under Antiochus, each confessing that the King of the world will raise them up. | Apocrypha | 2 linked studies |
| The Song in the Furnace | This page reads the Greek addition to Daniel 3, sixty-eight verses of prayer and praise sung inside the furnace, and lays out who the fourth man in Daniel 3:25 was. | Apocrypha | 4 linked studies |
| The Worst King's Prayer | This page traces Manasseh's repentance in 2 Chronicles 33 and reads the fifteen-verse Prayer that later tradition wrote to fill the gap the Chronicler left. | Apocrypha | 2 linked studies |
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