Introduction. In this post, I’m going to rely on the list of “The Parables of Jesus” in my NIV study Bible; that list can be found here (page 12). There are thirty-two parables from the Gospels in this list. There are no parables listed from John. There are three that appear in all the synoptic … [Read more…]

I’m also doing posts on Jesus’ theology in the other two of the synoptic Gospels, Mark and Luke (as well as John). There’s overlap — much of Mark is found in both Matthew and Luke — and I summarized the Luke post this way: Jesus’ theology in Luke can, I think, be succinctly stated by … [Read more…]

The Gospel according to John has, of course, a different perspective than the synoptic Gospels, and is theologically rich. But much of the theology in John is often found in the synoptic Gospels as well. What I’ve done in this post is categorize Jesus’s theology in John, starting with what is unique (or more unique, … [Read more…]

I’ve listed below and grouped by topic all in Luke that I think can be fairly described as Jesus’ theological statements and actions. After that I have a short discussion that summarizes Jesus’ theology in Luke. *** Jesus is God, and He knew the future, performed miracles, and forgave sins: Jesus’ awareness of His own … [Read more…]

It seems intuitively obvious that what Jesus Himself said and did ought to be of surpassing interest to Christians. The red-letter Bibles make sense to me. And I would add that this is true not only of how we are to act but also of what we are to believe, and by the latter I’m … [Read more…]

This post consists of three short sections, each making a point related to keeping Jesus first in our reading of Scripture. What We Look to Jesus For As Christians, we look to Jesus more than anything or anyone else. And I think it is helpful to divide what we look to Jesus for into three … [Read more…]

One reason that Paul may have spent what seems to us to have been an inordinate amount of time discussing God’s power is because his audience included so many pagans or former pagans. Consider, for example, his speech on the Areopagus to the Athenians (Acts 17:24-29), or the assertion in his letter to the Ephesians … [Read more…]

Leo Strauss — the great German-American political philosopher renowned for his close readings of classic texts — set great store on what was written in the precise center of ancient works. Now, it turns out that, in the Bible that we Protestants use, the Old Testament and New Testament each have an odd number of … [Read more…]

Here’s the famous Jesus-walks-on-water passage from chapter 14 of Matthew: 22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the … [Read more…]