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Notes on Mark 12:28-34

Translation and Notes Overview There are parallel passages in Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28 On the questioner, the Interpreter’s Bible comments: He is a model for the right approach both to Christ and to the scriptures. The psalmist speaks of “inquiring” in the temple (Ps. 27:4). We do so many other things there. We talk,…

Boot Camp Accountability

I saw this story about a 15 year old girl dragged behind a van at a Christian boot camp several places, but I don’t remember where first, so no hat tips. It should go without saying–but I’ll say it anyhow–that this type of brutal punishment, assuming that the story proves to be correct, fails the…

How to Change Your Mind – Again

Joe Carter has reposted his entry from last November, titled How to Change Your Mind. I liked it then and I still like it now, so I’m going to link to it again. I use some similar methods from time to time. My mother taught me reading 12 times, which was often part of memorization….

Notes on Mark 12:18-27

Translation and Notes Note: These notes accompany my podcast on this passage, Angels and Marriage. 18Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him, 19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife, but no child, then his brother must take the wife, and raise…

The Danger of Teaching the Controversy

The Florida Citizens for Science blog has a post, Best practice with an integrated curriculum?, which looks at some approaches teachers might take to including both creation and evolution in the classroom. The FCS blog does a pretty good job of pointing out the discrepancies. (I should disclose here that I am a board member…

Notes on Mark 12:13-17

These notes accompany my podcast Caesar’s Stuff. Translation and Notes It’s important in reading any of these challenge stories to consider the challengers, the situation in which Jesus finds himself, and the goals he is trying to accomplish. For example, here he needs to respond to the questioners in such a way as to keep…

Space Industry Accident

There are a number of news areas I follow regularly but don’t comment on, and space flight is one of them. Nonetheless as both a science fiction fan, and an advocate of sound science, I have been very excited to see the development of the private space industry. Today, in catching up on news reading,…

Notes on Mark 12:1-12

These notes accompany and supplement my podcast on the same passage. This parable is normally seen as a discussion of God’s relationship with the nation of Israel. Doubtless in the original context, with Jesus talking to Jews about how they had rejected prophets, and now were rejecting him, this was the meaning. Having noticed that,…

Learning from the War

Joe Carter caught my attention again today with his post This I No Longer Believe: 5 Lessons Learned from the Iraq War. Now he’s responding to this post by Rod Dreher, but I actually found his list more interesting. I’m not going to make my own list, because I don’t think I’ve learned five things…

Pope Benedict XVI on Creation-Evolution Controversy

My sister e-mail me a link to this article on to me via e-mail. Pope Benedict XVI said the debate raging in some countries — particularly the United States and his native Germany — between creationism and evolution was an “absurdity,” saying that evolution can coexist with faith. The pontiff, speaking as he was concluding…

Notes on Mark 11:27-33

These notes are intended to accompany my podcast A Question of Authority. Interpretations of this passage tend to focus on the conflict and how Jesus got out of it. He did, indeed, avoid a difficult situation in a very creative way. But there is an additional realm of discussion. Jesus suggested an entirely different way…