I find it very interesting to watch the way Christians handle the ten commandments. On the one hand, they have become an icon of our Christian culture, so that nobody wants to claim that they don’t keep them. They’re regarded as a foundational and basic icon, so we keep trying to make them the firm…
Some of my readers who know that I employ historical-critical methodologies in my Bible study may be surprised to know that one of my most useful books on the gospels is Darrel Bock’s Jesus according to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels. There is a simple reason for this. I believe that before you…
One thing that always interests me in the lectionary is the passages we don’t read. Often these are signaled by commas indicating a number of verses left out. At other times it may be interesting portions before and after. I see three interesting cases in the lectionary for Lent 2B. The first is in Genesis…
Psalm 22:23-31 is an interesting passage of praise. It’s easy to read these praise passages as kind of interchangeable–which Psalm shall we use to praise God today. But there are generally some special features of each passage. I believe that we are to focus on God when we worship and praise him. But at the…
I’m going to try to write something daily, even though I never intended this site to be blog-like. I link to my blogs from here which have shorter thoughts on various passages, but I rarely get into the themes and the relationships between the passages in the lectionary in my blogging. Over the last few…
One of the fascinating themes of the gospel of Mark is the interaction between Jesus and the demons. There are many surprising things, but one of these is that the demons react to Jesus just because he shows up. Another is that one of the things the demons want to do is identify Jesus. Why…
In trying to write these lectionary notes I have found that it is so much easier to get notes into my Bible margin, or on sticky notes marking the pages as I read, than it is to write them up for others. I hope some of you will be patient enough to stick with me…
I’m including audio of my lecture on 1 Corinthians 6 from 2003. This is more than 20 minutes of audio, so be prepared for the download times. {audio}03_1_Cor_6.mp3{/audio}
For many Christians, especially those who love theology, the Gospel of John is a favorite. There’s a good reason why it is used in the lectionary on high holy days–it reflects on the meaning of the events in the life of Jesus. For me, however, the gospel of Mark has always had a special place. …
This is the relevant presentation from my audio series on the gospel of John for Epiphany 1B. Though the scripture reading ends at verse 41, the presentation covers the transition from the baptism to the wedding feast at Cana. {audio}2-1-baptism_to_ministry.mp3{/audio}