Here are a few questions I'd appreciate some insight on. Thanks everyone!
#1: Why did John the Baptist eat locusts when they were forbidden?
#2: Where/when were firstfruits offered, the day after Unleavened Bread? Another day?
#3: Why doesn't the Old Testament really mention the afterlife?
#4: Thoughts on translations- Vulgate vs. Masoretic, & origins?
#5: Was the honey Samson ate from the lion's carcass considered an unclean food?
#6: When did Caleb defeat the Anakites?
#7: Thoughts on Nephilim? (Gensis 6:1-4) Giant Caananite ancestors?
Lets see if we can help you out.............
#1.
They were not forbidden.
Leviticus 11:22, it says "Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind." With the OK clearly given, beetles and grasshoppers in Israel got a little nervous. John the Baptist lived in the desert for months at a time, living on locusts and honeycomb because they were plentiful and cheep.
#2. (from "got questions .com")
Firstfruits was a Jewish feast held in the early spring at the beginning of the grain harvest. It was observed on Nissan 16, which was the third day after Passover and the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Firstfruits was a time of thanksgiving for God’s provision.
Leviticus 23:9-14 institutes the firstfruits offering. The people were to bring a sheaf of grain to the priest, who would wave it before the Lord. A burnt offering, a meal offering, and a drink offering were also required at that time.
Deuteronomy 26:1-10 gives even more detail on the procedure of firstfruits.
#3.
The Jewish answer would be because the Torah is about this world, not the next. While other religions dangle exciting promises of what lies in store for the righteous in paradise, even giving vivid descriptions of who awaits you there and interesting facts about their biology, Judaism doesn't see this as a valid motive for doing good.
#4.
Personally, I use the ESV and KJV pretty much exclusively.
#5.
The honey was not the problem. It was a fact that it was IN the carcass of a dead lion, that is the problem. When Samson gathered honey from the dead carcass of a lion, he expressly violated his Nazirite vow, which stipulated that a Nazirite should never touch a dead body or carcass (Numbers 6:6-7).
#6.
Joshua 15:14
"And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak." (ESV).
#7.
You just missed an exciting conversation on that subject and you will get several answers.
The "sons of God" are the human, Godly line of people who inter-married with "the daughters of men" thus polluting the line of Seth. Demons are spirits/fallen angels and as such do not have the ability to procreate. They are a-sexual as we are told by Jesus in Matthew 22:30 I believe it is.
