Joseph Husband of Mary
What about Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. We know vere little about him, but I think we know the most important thing. And that thing could empower our lives.
-
-
Matthew 6:9b – Father
A look at fatherood and the Lord’s Prayer. What can we learn from God as our Father?
-
Matthew 18:1-5 – As Children
What does it mean to become like a little child? What does it mean that strength is manifested in weakness?
-
With All the Faults and Failings
One of the things I find most interesting about the Bible is the way that its stories openly–one might even say brutally–cover the faults and failings of the main characters. Nobody manages to come off all that well in the story. Even Moses, author of the Torah, or perhaps receiver of it, is not presented…
-
After Teaching on the Sermon on the Mount
My Sunday School class just finished a several-week study on the Sermon on the Mount. We did not use any study guides as a class, though I consulted three books I publish, One World: The Lord’s Prayer from a Process Perspective, The Jesus Manifesto: A Participatory Study Guide to the Sermon on the Mount, and…
-
A Note on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
I had occasion to discuss this passage a couple of days ago, and it reminded me of many discussions I have had regarding this parable. (It’s Matthew 20:1-16, by the way.) This is a short note and not an extended discussion. The most common response I hear to this is that it isn’t fair. My…
-
Numbers 33 and Matthew 1:1-17
Regarding Numbers 33 and the 42 stations on the route to the promised land, footnote #1 on page 420, (Cornerstone Biblical Commentary on Numbers), notes that “[p]atristic commentators compared these 42 stations to the 42 (3 x 14) generations in Jesus’ genealogy, but that doesn’t shed any light on ch 33 …” It is quite…
-
Bible Passages | Bible Study | Bible Study Method | Christian Mission | Christianity | Discipleship | Religion
Some Lessons from Tilling My Garden
Well, my prospective, perhaps presumptive garden, that is. One of the important elements to understanding stories in the Bible, parables included, is our perspective. In Christian circles, when we hear “the sower went forth to sow,” (Matthew 13:3), or perhaps “a farmer went out to sow his seed,” we generally see ourselves in the role…
-
Is the Virgin Birth a Mistranslation?
Mark Goodacre has an excellent podcast on this question. What I’d want to get across in a brief answer to this question is: 1) Greek parthenos is not necessarily a bad translation of Hebrew almah. The semantic ranges do overlap substantially, though (as Mark points out) parthenos tends more toward “virginity.” 2) For reasons that…
-
The Trials of Mike Licona
I actually didn’t know who Mike Licona was until a few weeks ago, but I’ve discovered that he is a Christian writer who is a strong supporter of the historicity of the resurrection and generally defends the historicity of the Bible. Unfortunately for him, he recently suggested the possibility—just the possibility, mind you—that Matthew 27:51-53…
