Psalm 119:105 – Light
Light both physical and symbolizing God’s guidance.
Psalm 119:44 – Keep it Forever
And I will keep your instruction (Torah) continuallyforever and ever. For another sense of Hebrew parallelism, note the short 2nd line here, “forever and ever.” This is parallel with “continually” and suggests a combined “all the time for all time.” If we hadn’t just read a number of verses in which the Psalmist expresses dependence…
By the Wife of Uriah
Today as I walked I was listening to the Bible and starting the book of Matthew. Now Matthew, to the annoyance of many, starts with a genealogy. Are you one of those people who skip genealogies? Here’s what hit me today. In Matthew 1:6b I heard this “And David was the father of Solomon by…
Was Jesus Really a Healer?
By this question, I meant to ask whether Jesus actually cured people of illnesses, not whether he accomplished spiritual healing. I asked the question of Dr. Bruce Epperly, author of the book Healing Marks, when I interviewed him last night in an excursus to my series of studies on the gospel According to John. Here’s…
Fear, Beliefs, and Questioning
I’ve often said that I think people who become angry when their beliefs questioned are actually less confident of those beliefs, rather than more so. But that’s a pretty broad and inadequate statement, I think. I was discussing this with my wife recently, and we were wondering why neither of us get annoyed with people…
On Mythicist Views of Jesus
For those who may not watch all these things the term “mythicists” refers to those who believe Jesus never existed, that the stories about him were made up at some point and were not even centered on a minimal historical figure. There is a near alternative which holds that there were so few valid words…
Those Gritty Physical Metaphors
The gospel for Proper 14B is John 6:35, 41-51. This isn’t an exposition of that passage, but something that passage brought back to my mind. Jesus starts with the bread metaphor. Now for many of us, comparing spiritual food to bread comes quite naturally. We’ve read this in the gospel many times, and we’ve heard…
Parsimony of Miracle Assumptions: Matthew 21:1-7
Or I might title this “Was Jesus a Horse Thieving Magician?” I learned this story so long ago I don’t remember just when it was, but I got a Sunday School version that left me with the impression that because Jesus was God, either he knew everything, or his father revealed to him the location…
Jesus the Logician Project
Joe Carter at evangelical outpost is trying to relaunch his Jesus the Logician project. I think it’s an interesting idea, and an index that I would like to see, though writing this type of material would not be my cup of tea. Thus I will simply put in this plug for those who might participate,…