This text struck me this morning. How often to we forget this part of the gospel? 27Only carry out your activities in a way that is worthy Christ’s good news, so that whether I come and see you or whether I’m away, I’ll hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, putting out your…
My wife Jody notes that in my talk at a local church last Sunday night I commented that people read 1 Corinthians more than 2 Corinthians. I must add that I also said they read more Romans and Galatians than any Corinthians, but that’s beside the point. In any case she’s meditating her way through…
I’m ending a hiatus in blogging of just over a month. I see my last post was dated May 8, 2010, but I was pretty sparse for a month before that. I’ll get a post up about what I was doing during that time. No, nothing adventurous; just trying to do necessary work to grow…
I located this video today, and while I’m not blogging much these days, I wanted to share it. Alden was one of my teachers at Walla Walla College when I was in the Biblical Languages program there. I now publish his book Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God?, now in it’s fourth edition. There…
I’ve probably mentioned a few times that I studied under Dr. Alden Thompson at Walla Walla University (then WWC). He’s the one who taught me Hebrew, though actually I joined his class in the second year, and also introduced me to Aramaic. But more importantly, he introduced me to what I believe is a very…
From Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Christian Classics Ethereal Library), commenting on Hebrews 11:13-16. All emphasis is mine. What then? Did they mean that they were “strangers” from the land that is in Palestine? By no means: but in respect of the whole world: and with reason; for they saw therein none of…
From St. John Chrysostom, On the Epistle to the Hebrews 20.5, from Hebrews: Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture, New Testament X p. 167 Knowing then these things, let us be patient when we suffer evil and forthright in offering kindness. This is all the stronger if we think lightly of wealth and honor. He that…
I’ve given up the enterprise of reading this book through from cover to cover, so these notes are based on using it as reference while I’m reading 2 Corinthians itself. The fact is that I found the book impossible to read straight through. As I mentioned previously in using it as a comparison to Matera’s…
At first glance, this is a good sign for a Christian. After all, Jesus replaces “an eye for an eye” with “Do not resist the one who is evil” (Matthew 5:38-39). But I think it illustrates the way we fail to understand certain phrases as they were intended. “An eye for an eye” or lex…
… In the Tanakh, faith does not mean believing in spite of the evidence. It means trusting profoundly in a person, in this case the personal God who has reiterated His promise. (from The Jewish Study Bible: featuring The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation, page 35.) I think that’s an excellent statement of what faith…