Author: Jurica Sinko

I hit my 30s and realized something unsettling. I had spent the last decade building a career, figuring out relationships, and trying to keep a fiddle-leaf fig alive, but I’d completely neglected the big questions. The kind of questions you push aside in your 20s because you’re too busy. Suddenly, they were staring me right in the face. I had all these inherited beliefs and secondhand opinions, but I didn’t have a clue what I actually thought for myself. So, I started a little project. I decided to really look into the things I’d always just accepted or dismissed, and…

Let’s be honest. For years, the Bible on my shelf was more of a decoration than anything else. It was a thick, intimidating book I felt I should read, but never actually did. It seemed old, out of touch, and frankly, a little boring. I figured it was a collection of ancient rules and confusing stories that had nothing to do with my life—my career, my relationships, my anxieties about the future. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My journey with this book didn’t start with a flash of lightning or some big, dramatic moment. It started quietly, with a…

Ever find yourself in a late-night conversation, maybe over a beer, and someone drops the bombshell: “You know the Bible has been changed thousands of times, right?” It’s one of those statements that just hangs in the air. It sounds plausible, even smart. But is it actually true? That question, “How many times has the Bible been changed?” sent me down a rabbit hole I wasn’t expecting. I’m not a theologian or a historian, just a regular guy who wants to know what’s real. I’m in my early 30s, and I’ve learned to question things that sound a little too…

Have you ever found yourself in that slightly awkward, heart-pounding moment when someone you care about looks you in the eye and asks, “You don’t actually believe the Bible is true, do you?” If you’re anything like me, your first instinct is a jumble of defensiveness and a desperate scramble for the “perfect” answer. For years, I thought having the right facts and figures was like having a secret weapon. I learned dates, memorized arguments, and prepped my intellectual ammo. But here’s the thing I’ve learned, often the hard way: convincing someone the Bible is true rarely starts with a…

You’d think the answer to that question would be a simple “yes” or “no,” right? I certainly did. A while back, I was working on a personal project, a small wooden plaque for my grandfather, and I wanted to engrave a specific verse from the Book of Psalms on it. I picked a translation I grew up with, the New International Version (NIV), and right as I was about to finalize the design, a weird thought hit me: Can I even do this? Is the Bible copyrighted? It sent me down a rabbit hole of research that was way more…

I was probably about ten years old, sitting on a stiff wooden pew and staring at a picture of Noah’s Ark in a children’s Bible. Even then, my brain was buzzing with questions. How did they fit all the animals? What did they do with all the… you know… poop? It seemed more like a fantastical story than something that actually happened. Now, at 31, that feeling hasn’t exactly gone away. It’s just gotten more complicated. I’m not in Sunday school anymore, but the Bible is still everywhere. It’s quoted by politicians, referenced in movies, and sits on the bedside…

I was 28 when my grandfather passed away. At his funeral, the pastor read from a worn, leather-bound Bible, the same one my grandpa kept on his nightstand. The words were about hope and a place beyond this one, and for a moment, they brought a strange comfort to the grief. But later, standing in his quiet, empty house, I picked up that Bible. The pages were thin, almost transparent, filled with his handwritten notes in the margins. And a question hit me with surprising force: Is the Bible the Word of God? I mean, really? Or is it just…

Have you ever sat down to read the Bible and just felt… overwhelmed? I know I have. It’s this massive collection of books written over thousands of years, and sometimes it feels like a puzzle with a thousand missing pieces. For years, I found myself wondering, if I could just ask one person what it’s all really about, who would it be? The answer seemed obvious: Jesus. His name is on the cover of the best-selling book of all time, after all. That sent me down a rabbit hole, digging through the Gospels, trying to answer a very specific question:…

Ever walk into a bookstore and see the massive wall of Bibles? It’s a lot. You’ve got dozens of translations, study Bibles, teen Bibles, journaling Bibles… it’s overwhelming. But I noticed something a while back. They’re almost all categorized as “Protestant” or “Catholic.” It got me thinking, what Bible do Eastern Orthodox use? It seems like a simple question, but the answer is way more interesting than I expected. It’s not as simple as pointing to one single book, like a “King James Version for the Orthodox.” The Orthodox Church has a different perspective on scripture, a different history, and…

Have you ever been in a Bible study, listened to a sermon, or just read a passage on your own from the New International Version (NIV) and wondered, “Is this what it really says?” You’re not alone. I remember sitting in a coffee shop with a friend, flipping between his older King James Version and my well-worn NIV, and the differences were… noticeable. It wasn’t just “thee” and “thou” versus “you.” The wording felt different, the tone shifted. It kicked off a whole journey for me, trying to figure out if the NIV Bible is accurate. It’s a huge question,…

I was walking past a beautiful old brick church the other day, St. Mark’s Lutheran, with a sign out front for their weekly services. It got me thinking. I grew up in a church where everyone, and I mean everyone, used the same King James Version. It was practically part of the furniture. But it made me wonder, is it the same for Lutherans? Is there a specific “Lutheran Bible” they all carry? The question—What Bible do Lutherans use?—seems simple on the surface, but the answer is way more interesting than I expected. It turns out, there isn’t one single,…

I remember the first time I walked into a United Methodist Church. I’d grown up in a different tradition, one where the King James Version was the Bible, full stop. Seeing a different book in the pew rack felt… odd. It looked like a Bible, felt like a Bible, but the words on the page were just slightly different. Smoother, maybe? It sent me down a rabbit hole, asking a question that seems simple but has a surprisingly deep answer: What Bible do Methodists use? It turns out, there isn’t a single, mandated “Methodist Bible.” Instead, there’s a preferred translation…

I was driving through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a few years back, just watching the world go by at a slower pace. I saw a farmer out on a plow pulled by two massive Belgian draft horses, and it hit me just how different his world was from mine. I’ve always been fascinated by the Amish—not in a touristy, superficial way, but with a genuine curiosity about how they maintain a life so intentionally separate from the rest of us. It led me down a rabbit hole of questions. How do they run a business without a website? How do they…

You’re standing in a bookstore, or maybe you’re scrolling online, faced with a digital wall of Bible translations. There’s the majestic, old-school King James Version (KJV). The super-readable New Living Translation (NLT). The familiar New International Version (NIV). And then there’s the English Standard Version (ESV). They all say “Holy Bible” on the cover, but you can’t help but wonder if they’re all really saying the same thing. It’s a question that hit me hard a few years ago when I decided to get serious about my own study. The core of my search boiled down to one thing: Is…

Have you ever held a piece of history that felt almost… dangerous? That’s the feeling I got when I first learned about the Geneva Bible. It wasn’t just another old book; this was the Bible of the Pilgrims, of Shakespeare, and of John Knox. It was a Bible born from conflict, written by refugees, and packed with notes that were so provocative they literally changed the course of history. But that led me to the big question: beyond all the drama and history, is the Geneva Bible accurate? We hear a lot about the King James Version, the NIV, or…

Have you ever opened up a Bible, read a verse that felt a little too modern, and thought to yourself, “Wait a second, did they really say it like that?” That was me a few weeks ago, scrolling through the New Living Translation (NLT). It’s so easy to read, which I love, but a nagging voice in the back of my head kept asking: Is the NLT Bible accurate? Or is it just a watered-down, “beginner’s” version? It’s a fair question. When we’re talking about a text that has shaped history and personal lives for millennia, we want to know…

So, you’ve picked up an English Standard Version (ESV) Bible. Maybe a friend recommended it, you saw it praised online for its readability, or you just liked the feel of the cover at the bookstore. But then a thought crosses your mind, especially if you come from a Catholic background or are curious about it: “Wait a minute… is the ESV Bible Catholic?” I’ve been right there in that moment of confusion. The world of Bible translations can feel like an alphabet soup of acronyms—KJV, NIV, NABRE, RSV—and trying to figure out which one belongs to which tradition is a…

Have you ever walked into a bookstore, headed for the Bible section, and just stopped dead in your tracks? The sheer number of options is overwhelming. KJV, ESV, NASB, CSB, and somewhere in that sea of acronyms, you spot the New Living Translation (NLT). It looks friendly. The cover is modern. But then the big question hits you, the one that probably brought you here: Is the New Living Translation Bible accurate? It’s a fantastic question. And the honest, no-fluff answer is that it really depends on what you mean by “accurate.” I get it, that sounds like a cop-out,…

Have you ever heard a wild theory that sounds just plausible enough to make you pause? I was at a trivia night a few weeks back, and someone on the other team confidently shouted that William Shakespeare wrote the King James Bible. My first thought was, “No way.” But then, a seed of doubt. The language is poetic, it’s from the right era… right? It sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole, and the real story is honestly more interesting than the myth. Let’s get this out of the way immediately: No, William Shakespeare did not write the King James…

I was having coffee with a friend the other day, and we somehow got onto the topic of old books. Not just dusty library books, but really old books. It made me wonder about the Bible. For something that has shaped so much of the world, I realized I had a pretty fuzzy idea of its origins. It’s not like someone was following Jesus around with a notepad, right? So, how long after Jesus died was the Bible written? The answer isn’t a simple number, and diving into it felt like unraveling a historical mystery. It turns out, there’s a…

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t written over a weekend. Not even close. When you ask the question, “How long did it take to write the Bible?” you’re not asking about one book. You’re asking about a whole library—a collection of scrolls and manuscripts penned by dozens of authors over a staggering period. The simplest answer is that it took around 1,500 years from start to finish. But that simple answer feels like a cheat, doesn’t it? It’s like saying it takes a long time to build a city. True, but it doesn’t tell you about the planning, the different neighborhoods, the…

Ever find yourself in one of those late-night conversations that spirals into a topic you never expected? I was grabbing coffee with a buddy last week, and somehow we got from complaining about our Wi-Fi to arguing about ancient history. He made an off-hand comment about how everything from the ancient world is basically a guess. “How do we really know what Plato wrote?” he asked. “For all we know, we have, like, two copies that a guy in a basement found.” That question stuck with me. It’s a good one. It got me wondering, and after falling down a…

Have you ever stood in a library and just looked at the sheer volume of books? Thousands of stories, histories, and ideas, all bound and organized on shelves. Now, imagine trying to create a library that would define the beliefs of billions of people, but you can only choose about 66 books. And you have to do it over a span of about 1,500 years, with hundreds of authors, multiple languages, and constant debate. That’s essentially the story of the Bible. We tend to think of the Bible as a single, cohesive book that just… appeared. But when you start…

I remember sitting in a stuffy church basement as a kid, flipping through the impossibly thin pages of a Gideon Bible. The book felt ancient, monolithic, like it had been dropped out of the sky in its current form—black leather cover, gold-leaf pages, and all. For a long time, I just assumed that’s how it was. A single book, written from start to finish. But the more I’ve looked into it, the more I’ve realized that couldn’t be further from the truth. The story of how we got the Bible isn’t about one book; it’s about a library, assembled over…

Have you ever sat in a hotel room, picked up that Gideon’s Bible from the nightstand, and just wondered, who decided? Who picked these specific books—Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, Revelation—to be in this collection? It’s a book that has shaped history, yet most of us, myself included for a long time, don’t really know its origin story. It’s not like there was a single, secret meeting in a smoke-filled room where a group of guys voted on which books made the cut. The real story is far more human, more complex, and honestly, a lot more interesting. It’s a story of…