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WE ARE TRUE NORTH CHURCH, A NON-DENOMINATIONAL, CHURCH, IN PITTSBURGH, PA SERVING THE NORTH HILLS AND SURROUNDING AREAS
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Culture & Context: 1 Samuel
The name Samuel means “name of God” or “his name is El,” where El is the name of the God of strength and power. His parents were a Levite named Elkanah and Hannah, who was unable to have children for many years. Elkanah and Hannah were devout Jews who visited the sanctuary at Shiloh every year to worship and sacrifice (1 Sam. 1:3).


Culture & Context: Hebrews & James
Paul wrote many New Testament letters but is not believed to be the author of Hebrews. F.F. Bruce (1910- 1990) was a Scottish evangelical scholar, author and educator and a leading evangelical who believed in rigorous academic study of the Bible for all evangelicals. In his writings on Hebrews, he is quoted as saying:
“We may say with certainty that the thought of the epistle is not Paul’s, the language is not Paul’s, and the technique of OT quotations is not Paul’s.”


Culture & Context: The Gospel of Luke
Year 2 begins with the gospel of Luke. He is not identified by name in the gospel, but was well known by early believers. Acts 27:1- 28:15 places the author in Rome along with the apostle Paul. Luke was not an apostle nor did he witness to the gospel events; however, being a companion of Paul, who was an apostle of Jesus, gave him direct access to source material. Both his gospel and the book of Acts were written in letter form to Theophilus.