gospels

McKnight vs Wright: Jesus, the harmonies and the histories.

April 13, 2010

There’s an interesting argument of sorts going on between Scot McKnight on the one hand, and Tom Wright, Darrell Bock and Craig Keener on the other. Here’s McKnight’s original article; here are Wright’s, Keener’s and Bock’s replies; here’s McKnight’s rejoinder to the three of them. All are worth reading. One of the interesting things about [...]

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The cup Jesus drinks: wrath or suffering?

April 1, 2010

This evening’s preacher made an identification I’d first heard on the lips of Tom Wright, between the cup of God’s wrath (Psalm 75:8, Isa 51:17, Jer 25:15, Rev 14:10 inter alia), and the cup Jesus prays might pass from him (Matt 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42 and compare John 18:11). Wright went on to “prove” [...]

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Where’s that in the Bible, then?

March 28, 2010

Every year, on or after this day, someone – sooner or later – and usually in a sermon, draws our attention to the “fact” that the crowds crying “Hosanna” on Sunday were crying “Crucify” on Friday. I’ve already noted that in Luke’s Gospel it is the accompanying disciples who cry “Hosanna”. Luke, for one, doesn’t [...]

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The most ignored message of Jesus?

January 21, 2010

I suspect there are several contenders (if not more) for the title of “Most ignored passage in the gospels” or “Bit of Jesus’ teaching we most like to skip.” Many of the responses to Haiti reveal a desperation for simple meanings, clear patterns and quasi-magical views relating divine and human behaviours. They lead to to [...]

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Matthew and Luke: different takes on the virgin birth?

December 24, 2009

I think current and ongoing arguments over the historicity of the virginal conception of Jesus tend to obscure some of the differences in Matthew and Luke’s rather different narrations of it. Luke seems to do two things with it. First he backgrounds it with a range of OT echoes of unlikely conceptions, accompanying it with [...]

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Mamma Mia! It’s the Abba Daddy debate again

October 11, 2009

Yesterday, Rick Brannan raised again the whole question of the meaning of “Abba” in the New Testament. I guess that whatever anyone now says, a semi-charismatic bowdlerisation of Jeremias’ initial position will continue to flop around the prayer meetings. There will always be someone who thinks it means “Daddy”. It doesn’t. However, it seems to [...]

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Insults with style: Robert Price on Dominic Crossan

September 30, 2009

Dan Reid runs a trailer for a new IVP book on the historical Jesus, with contributions from Robert Price, John Dominic Crossan, Luke Timothy Johnson, James Dunn and Darrell Bock. That’s an impressively diverse line-up and very unlike the IVP of old. I confess that I think Price is the only one in the line-up [...]

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Mark Goodacre’s little gem

September 24, 2009

In picking up the gauntlet from James McGrath about Matthew’s use of Luke, Mark Goodacre rounds off his serious argument with a fun one. Order: Why would Matthew break up Luke’s superb ordering of the sayings, which are in highly appropriate contexts in Luke, tearing every little piece out of its context, only to lump [...]

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The wrong question: James McGrath on Jesus as God

September 24, 2009

James McGrath has one of those posts up today that invites either total incomprehension or a major book by way of responses: Did Jesus claim to be God? Judging by the initial responses he’s getting major incomprehension from those who believe John’s gospel settles the matter. I can’t help feeling that the question is anachronistic [...]

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A recipe for NT-ignorant journalism

September 8, 2009

Take one famous atheist author (Philip Pullman). Add one ignorant journalist who knows nothing of early Christian history. Throw in a PR man’s wet dream of publishing an anti-Christian book at Easter. Mix. I give you a story presenting an old, endlessly recycled and hackneyed idea as a masterpiece of original thinking. The book will [...]

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