In case you missed it, there were news stories last week (e.g., here in the New York Post and here in Newsweek) about new archaeological evidence supporting the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ burial. No surprise, of course, but a good way to start the month!
In August I have read through Luke’s gospel, which includes the Prodigal Son parable, and jotted down a couple of thoughts about it. First, how brilliant, beautiful, reassuring, and unique is the notion that God is especially concerned about the lost! Second, note that both the elder and younger sons in the parable leave a … [Read more…]
Some parts of the Bible seem to me to be overtly apologetic and others less intentionally so. That is, some parts are written with the idea of persuading people of the truth of the Hebrew/Christian God and that we should worship Him; others do not have that as an intended aim, but for one reason … [Read more…]
Probably the most famous verse in the New Testament, and for that matter in the whole Bible, is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Translations vary, but so far as I can tell in … [Read more…]
Who would we expect to write the first detailed accounts of Jesus and His ministry? *** Well, there were no investigative reporters or official church historians in the first century, or newspaper archives available to some enterprising free-lance biographer. It was, rather, the twelve apostles who were apparently there from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry … [Read more…]
Suppose you find an ancient manuscript that purports to be, not a scatalogical poem or potboiler novel or polished piece of classical literature, but a serious biography of at least 11,000 words. The man who is the subject of the manuscript is revealed to be divine, the Son of God, who tells people what God … [Read more…]
I’ll start the month with this: Genealogies would have been practically very important to ancient Jews, since tribal membership determined land rights, among other things. So we would expect there to have been great demand for their scrupulous accuracy in Scripture. Now, would we expect the scribes to switch casually from that mindset in one … [Read more…]
First, Richard Bauckham — the amazing scholar and author of, among other things, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses — has an interesting lecture here. In brief, he discusses how the supposed geographical “errors” in Mark can be explained by the facts that (1) Mark is relying on the recollections of Peter, and (2) Peter himself was … [Read more…]
The pastor at our church recently preached on John the Baptist — specifically, his words and actions in John 3:22-36 — and observed in the course of the sermon that John 3 and Romans 8 are, for Christian theology, perhaps the top texts. So this led to a discussion in our small group the next … [Read more…]
Jesus was always conscious of His audience and of time and timing in His ministry. So consider the setting of His meeting with Nicodemus, recounted in John 3:1-21. It is at the very beginning of His ministry, and He is meeting with one of the top Jewish religious leaders. What would Jesus want to say … [Read more…]