Source Notes & Research Spine
The receipts behind every lesson: our method, our sources, and an open invitation to check our work against the Greek text yourself.
Why We Show Our Work
You've probably been burned before: a word study that preached beautifully and turned out to be a myth, a “the Greek really means” that the Greek really didn't. So when we ask you to trust what's in these products, we owe you more than confidence. We owe you receipts.
This page is the receipts. It shows you the method behind every lesson, the sources behind every claim, and the exact text we checked for each one, so your trust in this library can rest on evidence, and your trust in your Bible can rest on something better than our say-so.
Every lesson is written and guardrail-checked by Mike: a PhD student in Bible Exposition at Liberty University with a dual master's in apologetics and theological studies, and the son of a Greek father. Trained eyes, graded on getting the text right, on every page you'll read here.
How Every Lesson Is Built
The same five steps, every time, no exceptions:
- Read the text first. The verse in its paragraph, in Greek and in English, before any lexicon is opened. The sentence rules the word, always.
- Locate the word. Confirm the actual Greek wording against a reliable critical edition (we use SBLGNT), not from memory or someone's sermon notes.
- Respect the range. Check what the word can mean across real usage, then let the context choose from that range, instead of choosing our favorite.
- Honor the context. Ask what the paragraph is doing and whether our claim would survive being read aloud next to the surrounding verses.
- Make the smaller claim first. Where scholars genuinely differ (you'll see us say so on epiousion, hilasmos, monogenes), we tell you plainly and build only on what is sure.
The Sources Behind Your Lessons
These are the tools on our desk, and every one of them can be on yours, mostly free:
- SBL Greek New Testament: the Greek text we quote. Open it and find every word yourself.
- STEP Bible: free original-language lookup. Tap any word in any verse and see its range.
- Ligonier: Word-Study Fallacies: the classic warnings against root-word overclaiming, in plain English.
- BiblicalTraining: Principles for Word Studies: how context and semantic range actually work.
- Logos: What Does Logos Mean?: a readable overview of logos in John 1.
Per-Lesson Review Notes
Every lesson in your library, with the exact Greek text we checked, the claim we anchored in context, and the overclaim we deliberately refused to make:
| Lesson | Text checked | Context claim | What we won't overclaim |
|---|---|---|---|
| John 1:1 Logos: The Word Who Was With God | ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος. | John's prologue uses logos to show that the Son is not a vague spiritual idea, but the eternal Word who is with God, is God, and became flesh. | Do not make logos mean every possible idea at once. Let John's context define the payoff. |
| Ephesians 2:8 Chariti: Grace In The Front Seat | τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι. | Paul puts grace at the front of salvation so nobody mistakes rescue in Christ for religious performance. | Grace is not God grading on a curve. It is God's generous action in Christ. |
| Romans 3:24 Dikaioumenoi: Declared Righteous By Gift | δικαιούμενοι δωρεὰν τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι. | Justification is God's gracious verdict in Christ, not self-improvement with religious language around it. | Justification does not pretend sin never happened; it rests on redemption in Christ. |
| Matthew 6:11 Epiousion: Bread For Today | τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον. | The rare word behind daily bread teaches humble dependence on the Father for what sustains us today. | Do not build a whole doctrine on the mystery of one rare word. Anchor it in the Lord's Prayer. |
| 1 John 4:10 Hilasmon: Love Defined By The Cross | ἀπέστειλεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἱλασμὸν περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν. | John defines love by God's action in sending the Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. | Do not flatten atonement into sentiment. John ties love to sin actually being dealt with. |
| John 19:30 Tetelestai: Finished Means Finished | τετέλεσται. | Jesus' cry from the cross announces completed work with continuing significance for everyone who trusts him. | Do not detach the word from John's passion narrative. The context is obedience, sacrifice, and fulfillment. |
| Romans 8:15 Huiothesias: The Spirit Of Adoption | πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας. | The Spirit brings believers into the family cry of Abba, Father, not merely into tolerated religious status. | Adoption is not a sentimental add-on. In Romans 8 it belongs with inheritance, suffering, and glory. |
| Philippians 2:7 Ekenosen: The Humility Of The Son | ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν. | Paul explains Christ's self-emptying by his taking the form of a servant and humbling himself in obedience. | Do not use this word to imply that the Son stopped being God. Let Paul's own explanation govern the meaning. |
| 2 Timothy 3:16 Theopneustos: Scripture Breathed Out By God | πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος. | Scripture is not merely reflection about God; Paul says it is God-breathed and useful for forming faithful people. | God-breathed is not permission to use the Bible carelessly. Paul ties Scripture to teaching, correction, and training. |
| Matthew 16:18 Ekklesian: Christ Builds His Church | οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν. | Jesus names the church as his own and promises that he himself will build it. | Do not preach only from a root-word slogan like called-out ones. The sentence matters: Christ builds his church. |
Check Us
We mean this: don't take our word for it. Pick any lesson in the table above. Open STEP Bible, look up the verse, tap the Greek word, and compare what you find with what we taught. Read the verse in two or three translations. See if our claim survives the paragraph.
If it holds up, and it will, you've just done your first piece of independent verification, and every “in the Greek...” you hear for the rest of your life will meet a reader who knows how to check. If you ever find a claim of ours that doesn't hold up, write to support and tell us. We will thank you, check it, and fix it. That's not a marketing line; a library built on “context outranks roots” has to live under its own rule.