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Adventures in NT Greek: Weirdness in Hebrews 11
Hebrews 11, the catalogue of heroes who acted “by faith,” is one of the most familiar passages in the New Testament, and I found it relatively straightforward for the most part. I did notice a couple...
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Adventures in NT Greek: Even though no one cares….
I think I just read a passage in Hebrews that incidates that God is a great father, similar to Abraham… UPDATE: I promise this post is more than just noodling around with Greek grammar. Probably more...
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And he spoke to them in parables…
On Twitter, I started drawing analogies to the global financial system and then realized that it would be easy to adapt many of Jesus’ parables to reflect contemporary economic realities. For instance:...
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The National Gospel of Liberty
Yesterday I shared the parable post with my former CTS colleague David Weasley, and he sent me this excerpt from a contemporary reimagining of Jesus’s preaching by our mutual friend and former...
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Jumping to conclusions in John
Since I’m teaching the Gospel of John this fall, I’m trying to make my way through it in Greek. I just finished chapter one this morning, and it included a passage that I have always found strange. I...
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Adventures in NT Greek: Is Jesus a vegetable?
Today I’m working my way through John 6, the famous “bread of life” chapter. I noticed something curious in a section where Jesus is contrasting the “true food” of his body with the manna Moses fed the...
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The abrupt ending of Mark: A cynical reading
The ending of the Gospel of Mark is one of the most puzzling issues in New Testament scholarship. Barring the discovery of new manuscript evidence, it is probably unknowable whether the author intended...
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Thoughts on the Parable of Leaven
Here is some theological exegesis I am thinking through, resulting from a subconscious insight. Lately I have been reading some books concerning the Jewish roots of Christianity, and other material on...
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Jesus, the Resurrection, and Zombies
Last week in class, we were discussing 1 Corinthians. When we got to the discussion of the resurrection in chapter 15, the students seemed to be converging on an understanding of the resurrection as a...
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My article on the resurrection
A new issue of Princeton Theological Review is out, featuring my article “The Resurrection of the Dead: A Religionless Interpretation.” It is my first published foray into New Testament studies,...
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Against sacraments: On the Gospel of John
Normally one reads the Gospels as all filling out details of the same basic story. This traditional attitude even affects critical scholars, who have focused on questions about the synoptic gospels’...
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The just one will live outside the social bond
I’ve got Romans on my mind, specifically 1:17 — “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith'” (NRSV...
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A canon of rivals
Last night, I gave a talk on the Temptation of Christ at an event for the DePaul Humanities Center. My focus was on the devil’s offer to give Christ all the kingdoms of this world, which I used as a...
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