Category: Gospels & Acts
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Our Father: A Lecture in Prayer
It is perhaps the most familiar passage in all of Scripture. But what does it mean? If we apply the three basic steps of inductive Bible study, it is amazing what we uncover.
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The Gospels and Acts: And the Type of Literature Is …
Not only are Luke and Acts by the same author (you guessed it: Luke), they are also two parts of one piece of writing. How does that change our view of Luke’s gospel?
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Water and the Feast of Tabernacles
What does water have to do with the feast of booths or tabernacles, those seven days in which devout Jewish people live in huts in remembrance of their desert wanderings?
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A Pilgrimage through the Gospel of John: Grace and Truth
As explained in the previous issue, my pilgrimage through Italy on the Via di Francesco turned into a pilgrimage through the gospel of John, using something akin to the Ignatian approach to Bible meditation. Jesus makes God known; how does he do that? I only offer a small taster. The idea is to whet your…
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A Pilgrimage through the Gospel of John: How I Got There
The key to understanding the gospel of John is not studying but meditation. At least for me it turned out to be that way. I have always had a hard time getting into this book. It finally opened up to me when I meditated on it rather than studied it. Therefore, after three long and…
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In Honour of Jesus: Objectivity Is Overrated (Eyewitnesses and the Gospel)
In January of last year, I did an issue on the authorship of John’s gospel, based on a book by Richard Bauckham (the answer, it turned out, is not as simple as that phrase, the author of John, might suggest). I finished with this statement, a mental note to myself: “On my reading list: Richard…
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Jesus on Divorce
The teaching of Jesus on divorce has been misunderstood by the church virtually from the beginning. The traditional view is that divorce is only allowed in the case of adultery and of desertion by an unbeliever; remarriage is not permitted as long as the marriage partner is alive. Noticeably, this does not allow for divorce…
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The Synoptic Problem
Matthew, Mark, and Luke have much in common, especially when compared with John. These three are therefore called the synoptic gospels (from Greek syn = together and opsis = view or seeing), since they provide a similar view of Jesus. The synoptic problem asks how this similarity can be explained. Biblical scholars have formulated numerous…
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Codex, Kingdom of Heaven, Rapture: Three Random Things
I regularly run into bits and pieces of insight or information that fascinate me but that seem too small to turn them into a full issue of Create a Learning Site. This month, I present three such pieces: codex, kingdom of heaven, and (the true meaning of) the rapture. You can also watch this content…
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Who Wrote the Fourth Gospel?
John’s gospel is not a book I have taught often. Without giving it much thought, I have usually assumed that the “John” of its title must be the apostle John, the son of Zebedee, one of the inner circle of Jesus’ 12 disciples. After all, this is what the Church Fathers, the early leaders and…
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How Ancient Rhetoric Helps Us to Understand the Bible Better (II)
For April of this year, I dedicated a post issue to the subject of socio-rhetorical criticism. One fascinating takeaway from that exercise was the realization that most NT letters are not really letters as much as they are speeches or discourses of various kinds. They had to be put in writing because their author could…