If you could speak with someone in the bible:::::

Let's say God offered you the once-in-a-lifetime chance to go back in time This could be any time you wanted in the scriptures and you could speak with anyone in bible history you wanted to then who would you speak with and what would you speak with them about? I have often imagined a "what if" major life-altering event where someone could go back in time and say have dinner with say Moses or Lunch with Jesus Christ and the 12 disciples. Or how about visiting the Apostle Paul? WOW! Now that would be awesome! What would you say to someone like that and who would you choose? Would you bombard them with questions or would you simply listen and soak in the whole experience? Wouldn't it be so neat to catch a ride on the Ark and walk and talk with Noah and his family?

Daniel! All was taken from him, yet he continued to love and serve the Creator of all.

I would like to talk to Jonah, and find out if he ever finally got the point.

Second choice, talk to one of the disciples and find out what Jesus wrote in the sand when they were going to stone the adulteress.

1. I'm always interested in the human side of people in the Bible, and how they dealt with their own faults and the sins they and others committed. I once heard a sermon about people in the Bible who had to overcome bitterness.

One of the examples was Sarah, the wife of Abraham, who was so beautiful that everywhere they went, the most powerful men in the country noticed. And Abraham knew this, telling her to tell everyone she was his sister, and being willing to hand her off to strangers for their own purposes -- twice.

Each time, her own husband, the pillar of God's chosen people, handed her off to these men in order to save his own skin, leaving only God to save her.

Now I realize times were different then -- it's not like Sarah could have just left Abraham and gotten her own apartment somewhere.

But I would love to ask her how she overcame the bitterness she must have felt. I don't think I could have gotten over it.


2. I would love to have a conversation with Esther. She had to hide her faith and nationality all the way to the throne.

When faced with the possible destruction of her people, Mordecai told her, Don't think your high position will save you. So she told him that she and her maids would fast for 3 days, that she would approach the king (he could kill her if he didn't accept her visit,) "And if I perish, I perish!"

I wonder if even by fasting, it gave away that she believed in the God of the Jews. She obviously had an effect on people wherever she went (even when she was just in the running to become queen, the head servant favored her,) and I would love to talk to her about conveying our faith in situations where a more covert approach might be more effective than pounding people over the head with Scripture.


3. I would like to have a talk with David's wife, Abigail. I knew about 3 of David's wives -- Michal (Saul's daughter,) Abigail, and Bathsheba, but one thing I learned on this very forum was that David had at least 8 wives who were named in the Bible.

Abigail was a God-fearing woman who appeased David's anger towards her then-husband's foolish decisions. David took her for his own after her husband died.

I have always wondered if Abigail, who seemed to be very level-headed and righteous, was ever jealous of Bathsheba, who was joined with David due to adultery and murder -- and yet it was Bathsheba whom God chose to bear Solomon, who is so famous that even the secular world often knows who he is. We don't really know how Bathsheba felt about her original husband being killed, though the Bible says she had at least mourned him traditionally -- maybe God gave her Solomon as a source of comfort.

But I often wonder if David's other wives were jealous that the honor of bearing the wisest, richest, famous earthly king to ever live was given to the woman who started out as David's adulterous side piece instead of one of them.

Elijah.

His resilient faith in God did not always keep him from feeling discouraged, but he kept on counting on God when faced with adversity. In response to Elijah's faithfulness, God demonstrated how His power can be manifest through a man's weakness.

A priceless narrative.

Maybe I'm the only one who sees the elephant in the room, but it seems like talking to the incarnate Christ would be greater by far than with anyone else. Particularly, I'd like to know what Jesus imparted to those cats on the road to Emmaus.

Luke 24:27 + 31

That's pretty vague. When God created the stars, the Bible says...He created also the stars. So the Bible often understates things. I would have liked to have been there and taken notes.

Yes, I did understand what you meant, although, when I looked up cats on the road to
Emmaus, an AI bot told me, There's not much info about cats on the road to Emmaus

I got great news for you, you can actually speak with Jesus.

They probably couldn't find tha cats that are groovin' either.

Maybe it was a typo and the cats were groomin'.

None other than Christ of course.
I'd avoid any OT characters, especially David.

I've mentioned elsewhere that all that happens in this Creation is not lost.
Luke says "God knows all the hairs on your back".

Which in modern language means that nothing is lost in this Creation and everything is recorded and known by God. Nothing!
If you were to travel at a point in space 2000 light-years away from Earth and point a telescope back to Earth, you'd see Jesus walking the Earth!

You can't communicate, but you can see Him.
So yeah, if given the option i'd pick Jesus and nothing else.

I can dig it.

Samuel....when dealing with Saul....
Then of course Caleb if I could get a word in otherwise during his giant killing training.
Peter....go fishing and then have a beer afterwards.
Phillip....he had lots of stories and knew EVERYONE.
John? I'm not so good at speaking with hippies though.
Simeon Zealotes....right after getting the swords. But a "Netflix and chill" time with him and Judas from Iscariot would be awesome. (Judas would pay for everything)
I got questions for him....

Paul? Probably not....too much sarcasm.
Bartholomew would likely be better and fun.

Nice list , John DB

I LOVE how you responded to this because so many times we can read about people in scriptures and so totally miss their humanity. I think it is human nature to skip details that were aspects to someones life in any written account especially when we have an "agenda" of what we want to read about and so we tend to skip or skim over "gloss over really" details. Your comment put me in mind of the director of the Chosen series. Dallas Jenkins who did painstaking steps to hunt down not just biblical details but actual historical details about the people of the bible they are portraying to come up with the most detailed information they could possibly find! He gathered experts from all over the globe in order that what is portrayed is as accurate as possible.
Yes I watch a LOT of the after shows and pre-shows plus the interviews. Dallas Jenkins has done absolutely THE best job in that sense as well as instead of making the series more like a documentary which is good, he kept to his original vision for a real series TV show and I believe in that God has blessed the hard work they poured into it.
I love that aspect to what Dallas has done because I know as sure as I am seated here that there will be those people that will whip out their bibles and commentaries, historical books and commence to picking apart every aspect of it all not understanding that it is a production.
For me, I love it so much because I feel as if I have been granted a sort of window into the lives of these men and woman of the time. It is an amazing series.
The Chosen

Great thread, thank you kindly!

Thanks for the compliment. For me, what got me very interested in the bible was the mystery surrounding the unknown aspects of the lives of people who lived in biblical times. Oh, I heard a lot of stories and opinions and differing "takes" on how folks were. For me, I wanted to find out for myself and I used to just fantasize about what if I could go back in time and really just walk and talk with some of these folks personally on their level. What would it be like to spend a month say in Ancient Jerusalem? What would it have been like to walk around watching Jesus Christ Himself calling His disciples as He said; "Follow me."? Better yet, what would I bring back from that experience to share with the modern world and how might that affect others? Or how about breaking off for a day or two and spending time with Romans and see what their lives were like or other peoples and see how all of this threads together?
For example, and this is simply my opinion ok.
I disagree with most paintings of Jesus Christ from decades gone by. Why? Because I just sat and thought about this one day. You see my father was a carpenter too. Even with machines helping he lifted a LOT of some heavy materials. Hauled a LOT of wood in trucks! Now, you take the trucks away, you eliminate modern saws and all those drills and screwdrivers and screws and so on, all of the modern convenient tools they use and you make for some VERY physically demanding hard labor! Jesus Christ did this labor. So when people paint the Lord, they always seem to gravitate to painting this skinny man and I just don't see that. I see a very muscular man who spent a bit of his life in the best shape of his life. I imagine large biceps and we defined muscles ok. So his size to me would change. Can you imagine what it must have taken to even build a split-level home? Can you even imagine a job site where there was not one saw or a truck for hauling wood or stone? Man oh man that must have been some HEAVY lifting. Or how about their fishing industry?
OK so I spent time living in Seward, Alaska and I spent time among those who worked within the fishing industry and fish processors. Now that work is VERY manual labor intensive! Oh and it is not a simple 8-hour workday job! NO!!! Up there in Alaska when you work in a fish processing plant and a long liner comes in with say 320,000 pounds of fish to be offloaded and processed, get ready for at least a 16-hour workday! YUP, I lived that. I worked in the butcher room where we beheaded the Black and Grey Cod or the Salmon and sometimes Halibut. Now that is from massive fishing vessels called long liners where they can catch some 350,000 POUNDs of fish before they have to come in and get it offloaded.
Now, imagine that only being done in TINY vessels and over 2000 years ago off Israeli coastal waters? Longliners have their own nets and CRANES for lifting.
Those vessels in Christs time were not equipped with the modern conveniences making being a fisherman possibly harder labor than carpentry.
Now I've had friends who owned boats that fished for a living. In no way could you ever categorize any of them as being lazy! They are sometimes up all hours of the night working and even get up before sunrise to gather their nets full of fish. That life is seriously NO JOKE!
So for me, having been where I have been and lived how I have I don't picture these little skinny guys. NO WAY. I imagine Peter was a very stout barrel-chested man! Abrupt and rough cut.
These were very tough and rugged MEN and could probably take on any Roman soldier. Why else do you think Jesus had to rebuke them for attacking a Roman soldier and cutting off his ear? I am a military veteran myself and I understand the guys.

The madman of Gadara.

I would ask him how he wound up with a legion of demons inside of him.