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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Doxologies in Psalms
On my Participatory Bible Study blog I asked a question and linked to Bob McDonald (Bob’s Log) in the hope he would answer. He did, in the comments. Read the post for the question, the comments for the answer and supporting data.
St. Gregory the Theologian on Ransom and the Bronze Serpent
I was delighted to find this quote via the Orthodox Study Bible, though I must add to my complaints about that edition the fact that they cite church fathers by name, but without providing a reference to the particular work. A visit to the St. Pachomius Library and then ewtn.com resolved the latter question. The…
Brothers at War
Irrespective of one’s view on war, I think we should strongly support our troops and those they leave behind. While I was in the military I was single, but I had close friends who were married and left children behind. One of my best friends was away for the first gulf war for about three…
When a Sign Goes Bad (Lent 4B/Numbers 21:4-9)
Yesterday I wrote about the equivocal nature of the sign of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, and how it was both a symbol of death, and a symbol of fertility and life in the ancient near east. Today in my reading I checked the notes in the The Jewish Study Bible and found…
Psalm 107 and Artificial Divisions
I did the Old Testament/Psalms portion of my lectionary reading today from the Jewish Study Bible. The notes draw attention to the difficulty in separating Psalm 107 into the next book. The division between books 4 and 5 of the Psalms occurs between Psalm 106 and 107. But these divisions are later than the text…
On Publishing a Conservative Book
First, let me alert all my readers that this is about my business even though this is a personal blog. Second, for those who read my business blog, it will be, to a certain extent, repetitively redundant. Several months ago I decided that I would expand my publication efforts into the area of politics, though…
Grace in Action (Lent 4B)
The passages are Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10 and John 3:14-21. These passages center around the story of the serpent that Moses put on a pole in the wilderness. The omission of verses 4-16 maintains that emphasis even in Psalm 107, though I would recommend reading the entire passage. I am not always…
Relating Ritual, Symbol, and Reality – A Question
I was looking at this week’s lectionary passages, and a relationship with my current study of Leviticus struck me. How precisely do our actions and rituals symbolize what we’re trying to represent? Is it possible that all they do is open up the questions for us? I wrote about some of the oddness of God’s…
In Which a Calvinist Annoys and Delights Me
Or you can call him “Reformed.” I personally dislike that particular term because to many people it implies that other protestants never passed through the reformation, that only the Calvinists “reformed.” All of which can also ignore the adjustments in Catholic theology since the time of the reformation. But that’s all a side issue, and…
When Even Brilliance is Foolish (Lent 3B/1 Cor. 1:18-25)
There are so many ideas that come from reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. The worst is the notion that many foolish human notions are actually divine wisdom. Paul doesn’t tell us any such thing. Certainly human wisdom falls far short of God’s wisdom, and we may have some very foolish ideas that we mistake for wisdom,…
Authority (Lent 3B)
Scriptures: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 2:13-25 There are quite a number of places in the gospels where authority is displayed, but in today’s passages we see the theoretical basis or the underlying explanation of God’s sovereignty. There are a number of key elements. These are likely quite obvious to you, but…
The Ministry of Complaining
I once preached a sermon by that title, and my main point was simply that complaining can be a valuable activity. We need people who notice things that are wrong and are willing to point them out. We need critics. I was reminded of that sermon today when I read the post Clergy Haters from…
The Early Cleansing (John 2:13-25/Lent 3B)
As I have mentioned before, I like to check out gospel passages with Darrell Bock’s notes in Jesus According to Scripture in order to see the best possible options for reconciling the various stories. In this case, I don’t find the results very promising. The only possible way to reconcile the synoptic tradition, with a…
Christian Carnival CCLXVII Posted
… at Christ’s Bridge.
Is the Cross Still Foolish? (1 Cor 1:18-25/Lent 3B)
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (Translation and Notes) After around 2000 years of preaching, whole nations that have claimed to be Christian, serious Bible study by well-qualified scholars, and plenty of examples to work from, does the cross still look like foolishness? I have answer, “Yes, in every way!” There is an element lacking in our…
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (Lent 3B)
It’s getting to the point where I’m not certain I haven’t posted something on this passage before. I have a draft translation of all of 1 Corinthians on my totally free Bible translation project. It’s a very drafty translation, so herewith a few corrections and some notes, which hopefully I’ll get entered into the main…
God is in Creation (Psalm 19/Lent 3B)
I have always loved Psalm 19, and I also regard it as a unified Psalm even though it is divided into two parts. Those two parts, however, convey a unified central message. God is the creator and this is why he is also the lawgiver. In the ten commandments, also part of this week’s reading,…
Leviticus 6:8-13
Baker takes a series of short sections here, and I’m not grouping them into any larger passage, because I’m under some pressure and these short sections are working for me right now. Let me note also that while the electronic edition of Rahlf’s LXX that I’m using today (GnomeSword) follows the English verse divisions, the…
The Ten Commandments in a Secular Society (Lent 3B/Ex. 20:1-17)
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…
Sources and Repetition (Genesis 17/Lent2B)
In dealing with source criticism there are two broad questions for the Biblical exegete, as opposed to the actual source critic. The first is whether there are identifiable sources at all, or at least in any substantial sense, and the second is how important these sources are for exegesis. Though I’m not going to go…
The Confession and other Gospels (Mark 8:31-38/Lent 2B)
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…
Leviticus 5:14-6:7
I’m still following the division of David W. Baker’s commentary on Leviticus in the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary on Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Today’s passage equates to Leviticus 5:14-26 in the Hebrew text, and the Hebrew text is indeed better divided than the English or the LXX. While the section is indeed properly grouped together, the…
Biblical, Convinced, and Wrong! (Lent 2B)
The story in Mark 8:31-38 fascinates me because the disciples were, in one sense, so right, yet they were so wrong. What we often forget is that there was good reason for the disciples to expect the Messiah to take over the throne of David immediately, to rescue their nation from the Romans, and to…
Romans 4:13-25 – Abraham and God (Lent 2B)
There are two questions I think will prove very much worth some meditation time. This is a rich passage, so obviously there are more, but let me emphasize just two. First, Paul uses Abraham a great deal. In an excursus on page 2015, amongst the notes on chapter 4, the New Interpreter’s Study Bible notes…