I thought this was one of the most beautiful ways I have heard this expressed: “For” (he says) “the Law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things”; i.e. not the very reality. For as in painting, so long as one [only] draws the outlines, it is…
Nijay Gupta has a short interview with Gordon Fee regarding his new commentary on Galatians (HT). Since I have an extremely high regard for Gordon Fee’s work in general, and for his commentary on 1 Corinthians (which I cite frequently) in particular, I’m certainly planning to get my hands on a copy of his work…
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…
When I’m teaching church members, I like to emphasize service in one’s choice of a church congregation. The best congregation for you is the one where you can best fulfill your call to minister to others. I believe everyone has such a call. That’s a generalization that often doesn’t answer that many questions, but it…
What meaning is evoked in people’s minds by the word “sacrifice?” One of the things I like to do when teaching is to simply write a word on the board that is commonly used in Biblical and/or Christian discourse and get people to give me various things that this word means to them. I try…
If you’re acquainted with the synoptic gospels, in reading John 18:1-4 you may notice some substantial differences. What’s missing here is the time of tarrying and waiting, the prayer, any sort of agony or question about what Jesus was about to go through is gone. Verse 4 puts the different feel of the text into…
19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, steadfast and firm and entering the inner side of the veil. 20Jesus entered there as a forerunner for us, becoming a high priest eternally according to the order of Melchizedek. — Hebrews 6:19-20 When I joined the Air Force, my mother made me a quilt…
9We are confident concerning you, loved ones, that you have the greater salvation. That’s why we speak in this way. 10For God is not so unjust that he would forget your works and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints and continuing to do so. 11But we want each…
Note: I will be using the English verse numbering throughout. Hebrew verse numbers are one greater in this chapter, thus this is Psalm 40:7 in Hebrew. In reading Psalm 40 several times, since it’s the lectionary passage for this week, I noticed a few things that I would have missed in just one pass. One…
In the prologue to his commentary on the Song of Songs, Origen recommends that certain portions of scripture, in particular the Song of Songs, should not be read by people who are not sufficiently mature: “But solid food is for the mature” and requires such people as listeners who “have their faculties trained by practice…