IF WE take the first two readings for Advent 2 at face value, the Second Coming will not be welcoming or comforting, but terrifying. Until the first coming of Jesus, water baptism was able to cleanse people of their sin. Verse 10 is a problem — perhaps a small problem in the panoply of Advent scriptures, but an insistent one. When a Bible word is found that does not seem to make sense, translators have two basic options. The only problem is a lack of corroboration for such a usage of the problem word.

Source: The Times December 04, 2023 12:09 UTC