Good Eye / Bad Eye
Students often ask me about a saying from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “… if your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness”...
View ArticleReading John
As a resident of Hawaii most of my life, one of the conversations that I have often had with visitors was about what to see when they came to Hawaii. I would tell them to get out of Waikiki, to be...
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Soldiers in the Gospels
When I teach or preach from the Gospels, I always bring in relevant aspects of the historical and cultural background. Including such details not only helps us in our interpretation of the scene, but...
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Dr. Seuss and Revelation
As the father of eight children, I have spent a lot of time with Dr. Seuss. It's scary that I can quote pages of Cat in the Hat from memory. But my time in Dr. Seuss occasionally pays off when I study...
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Generous Charis
I grew up hearing and reading the Bible during the transition from the King James Version to NASB and NIV. In my church setting, the transition was mostly welcomed, except by a few godly old-timers who...
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Revealed to Whom? (John 3:21)
I often get questions from students about the best translation of some verse. Usually, the difference is between "literal" translation (such as ESV or NASB) and "dynamic" translation (such as the NIV...
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Paul is not Talking about Himself: Why I take the "pre-Christian" Reading of...
Earlier this semester, my good friend Ken Berding and I were discussing the different views on Romans 7:14-25 and decided that we would each write a blog post summarizing our reasons for holding...
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Did Jesus Have a Wife? A New Gnostic Fragment
According to an article in the Washington Post, an ancient manuscript claiming that Jesus had a wife has just been discovered. I’ll tackle this new discovery with some Q&A.What is this new find?...
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"Jesus' Wife" Papyrus: an Update
Last week, I posted my initial take on the so-called "Gospel of Jesus' Wife." My first point was that it was "too early to tell" whether the manuscript was genuine. In the last twenty years, forgers...
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"Children of God" (John 1:13)
This morning, I began teaching Greek sentence diagramming to my students in Introduction to Exegesis. Some students love diagramming, but probably more dread it, at least at first. I picked some...
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Pictures of Jesus
The latest news on historical Jesus research can now be found in… Popular Mechanics? I’m used to perusing Popular Mechanics to see flying cars, homemade submarines, and ads for power tools. But...
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No Stone Left Unturned: Solving a Minor Mystery
Recently, while reading through the minor prophet Haggai in the LXX (the Greek Old Testament), I noticed a phrase that looked familiar: “before a stone was laid on a stone (λίθον ἐπὶ λίθον) in the...
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A Response to Zealot by Reza Aslan
Reza Aslan’s new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Random House, 2013), is in most ways a typical attempt to paint a new picture of Jesus. Because so many hundreds of books of this...
View ArticleThe Parable of the Foolish Weightlifter
1The teacher said, “Hear now the parable of the foolish weightlifter. 2A certain man wished to become stronger and to run and not grow weary. So he went to the gymnasium, paying the gymnasium-master...
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Snatched Up For a Meeting
The release of the movie Left Behind has again drawn attention to the Christian belief in the rapture. The movie tries to portray the chaos in the world as millions of Christians suddenly disappear....
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Christmas in November?
Merry Christmas! Today, November 18, is Jesus' birthday, according to a few ancient sources.A few years ago, I came across an interesting article about the date of Jesus' birth by Paul Meier, a...
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Chronology of Easter in John and the Synoptic Gospels
The exact chronology of Easter is not the most important thing to think about during Easter week, but students often ask me questions about chronological issues in the Gospels. Here are two common...
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Three Days and Three Nights
The message of Easter is much more important than its chronology. Still, people often ask me questions about chronology in the Gospels. In my earlier post, I answered questions related to the date of...
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New Claims Regarding the “Family of Jesus” Tomb
“Geologist claims Jesus was married… and had a SON: Expert says he has proof son of God was buried in 'family tomb' along with wife Mary and his brother” screams the headline. The sensational headline,...
View ArticleI am the Very Model of a Doctor of New Testament
I am the very model of a Doctor of New Testament,I exegete pericopae in weather fine or inclement,I know the difference between a codex and a Chester B,and even if a manuscript is Byzantine or Westerly.
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