Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
Andy Judd teaches Old Testament and hermeneutics at Ridley College, Melbourne, and a few years ago I heard him give a great paper at a conference on the Old Testament citations in Acts. He has just completed his doctoral research on Gadamer, Genre Theory and biblical hermeneutics, and I was able to ask him about …
This morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4 by Sam Wells of St Martin’s in the Fields once again repeated that familiar trope: Jesus was laid in an animal trough away from the support of immediate friends and family. The first is true; the second is a mistaken inference based on a misreading …
Michael Messenger writes: Some months ago, I was alerted to an article in which David Instone-Brewer suggests that the prohibition of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 might apply only to activity between “heteroerotic males” (“Are there two types of men in Leviticus 20:13?”). While admitting that the evidence is “not enough to be certain” and “we …
Questions of what the Bible teaches about the end of the world have been given a renewed focus during the Covid pandemic. But in fact understanding what the New Testament says about this subject (known as ‘eschatology’ from the Greek words for ‘last things’ and ‘study’) affects the way we think about a whole range …
The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for Trinity 18 in Year B is Mark 10.2–16. I think it is impossible to preach on this passage without dealing with the question of the consequences of Jesus’ teaching for our own attitude to and the Church’s practice in relation to divorce and remarriage, and this will make it …
There is a widespread view that the work of the Spirit and the work of critical study of the Bible are like oil and water—they simply don’t mix. This is reinforced from both directions. People who read the Bible devotionally often look distinctly nervous when the subject of ‘academic’ study of the Bible comes up. …
I write a quarterly column for Preach magazine, in which I explore a significant word or phrase in the Bible and the ideas that it expresses. I have written for them on: the phrase ‘Word of God’ the theme of ‘Mission’ the meaning of ‘Apocalypse‘ the ministry of ‘Healing’, the question of ‘Welcome’, the biblical understanding …
The gospel lectionary reading for Trinity 14 in Year B is Mark 7.24-37, which includes the episode of Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman that often brings readers up short, containing as it does what appears to be a rather shocking insult. Jesus is seeking to withdraw from public attention, needing some time for rest …
The Sunday lectionary reading for Trinity 13 in Year B is Mark 7.1–8, 14–15, 21–23. We have chewed over the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6, and gathered up every last morsel of the ‘bread of life’ discourse over the last five (five!) weeks—and now our fast from Mark’s gospel is at an end! Reading …
In a range of different contexts, I often get involved in answering questions that people have about the Bible. If I am preaching somewhere, especially in an evening service, I will quite often offer an open ‘question and answer’ session, and I have in the past taken part in Premier Radio’s Monday morning phone-in, in which …
For some time, I have been intrigued by the question of whether Jesus was funny. In his teaching, did he tell what we might call jokes, and did his listeners find themselves laughing when they listened to him? There are many prima facie reasons why we might suppose Jesus was funny. If Jesus was fully human—indeed, …
