Category: Biblical Studies
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Our Evil God
Read more: Our Evil GodEvil things happen in this world, and yet God is still somehow sovereign. This is perhaps the hardest part of Christian theology to accept and understand. How is God sovereign over the persecution of Christians around the world, over the acts of ISIS, over world hunger and poverty, or over smaller evils like my own depression,…
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The Art of Translation: An Example from Luke 2.49
Read more: The Art of Translation: An Example from Luke 2.49The Text that Started It All I received this text message from a friend: “Quick…need a translation/explanation of Luke 2:49.” I found the necessity of a hurried response to be a bit peculiar. Who would need a translation of a verse so promptly? Nevertheless, I supplied my quick, and rather ‘wooden’, translation from the Greek…
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The Word and Their Words: How to Listen to Speeches Theologically
Read more: The Word and Their Words: How to Listen to Speeches TheologicallyTheology and language are inseparable. Theology is speech about God, and this speech is linguistic and therefore culturally defined. Languages, particularly those of civilizations with imperial and colonial histories, are the words of the most affluent and well-to-do. (This is why words like ‘suwanne’ and ‘purdy’ are not found in the OED). Words of conquered…
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Becoming friends with God and Abraham
Read more: Becoming friends with God and AbrahamWhy is Abraham called a friend of God? Here are some ideas: Isaiah says it, and James says that “doing good” has something to do with it. (Isa. 41:8; Jas. 2:23) Augustine describes friendship as a “sharing of the counsels of the heart.” (Edward C. Sellner Like a Kindling Fire: Meanings of Friendship in the Life and…
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The Deadly Implications of Reading Scripture
Read more: The Deadly Implications of Reading ScriptureReading scripture has deadly implications. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before…
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Rule of the Community, the Prophet, and the Two Messiahs
Read more: Rule of the Community, the Prophet, and the Two MessiahsIn the Qumran text Rule of the Community it states, “They shall be judged by the first judgements in which the men of the Community began to be instructed, until the coming of the prophet and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel” (1QS 9.10–11).1 We have here “the locus classicus for Qumran messianism.”2 Although this…
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Excising the Experts
Read more: Excising the ExpertsThe Root Issue: Failure to Listen In my previous blog post, The Art of Listening, I discussed the important and wise lesson behind one of my favorite biblical versus—Proverbs 18:13: “He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him” (NASB). If you have not already done so, I highly…
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The Art of Listening
Read more: The Art of ListeningMy Favorite Proverb There is one particular biblical verse with which I have been infatuated for some time and which I have made a constant conscious commitment to follow. That verse goes a little something like this: “Ten cubits shall be the length of each board and one and a half cubits the width of…
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Review of The Revelatory Body: Theology as Inductive Art by Luke Timothy Johnson
Read more: Review of The Revelatory Body: Theology as Inductive Art by Luke Timothy JohnsonJOHNSON, Luke Timothy. The Revelatory Body: Theology as Inductive Art. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015. pp. 256. $25.00 (Hardback). ISBN: 978-0-8028-0383-2. Luke Timothy Johnson’s The Revelatory Body offers the bold thesis that “the human body is the preeminent arena of God’s revelation in the world.”[1] While many will welcome the claim that the human body…
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Shepherding the Lost
Read more: Shepherding the LostFor a flock of sheep, the shepherd is an important figure. Without a leader, the sheep would live aimlessly, only doing what is necessary for survival. This is a wonderful reflection of church structure and the necessity for not just a strong leader; but more importantly, an even greater Shepherd to guide all processes. I…