scholarship. serving. ministry.
I am sorry to spoil your preparations for Christmas before the Christmas lights have even gone up—though perhaps it is better to do this now than the week before Christmas, when everything has been carefully prepared. But Jesus wasn’t born in a stable, and, curiously, the New Testament hardly even hints that this might have … Continue Reading
Yet another ‘prophecy’ about the end of the world comes and goes—but we know, like the proverbial bus, another one will be along soon. One of the reasons for this predictable yet disappointing procession is that we don’t really know how to read the Book of Revelation properly—the source of many of these failed forecasts. … Continue Reading
For ten years, from 2005 to 2014, I chaired the Revelation seminar at the annual British New Testament Conference. During that time, we quickly doubled the number of papers presented at each conference from three to six, so that in the ten years we heard more than 50 papers. They ranged from initial thoughts from those … Continue Reading
With Jeremy Corbyn likely to be elected as the next Labour leader, there is a good chance that we will all be faced with a much clearer choice at the next election. For Christians, this will raise more acutely the question of how important care for the poor is in their voting decisions. (Whatever else … Continue Reading
There is an interesting debate going on at the blog ‘Is that in the Bible?’ on whether the NIV deliberately mistranslates in order to support a particular theological position. The blog is by Paul Davidson, who is not a professional biblical studies scholar (though is a professional translator), but it has attracted comment from a … Continue Reading
I was initially planning to call this post ‘Why is Revelation so difficult to interpret?’ There are lots of reasons for that. The first is that it is intricately connected with its historical context in ways which fundamentally affect the way we interpret it. Perhaps the best-known example of this is the question of what … Continue Reading
I suspect that you are familiar with the modern proverb ‘The devil’s in the detail.’ It usually comes up when people are agreed on the general issues involved in a problem, but there is more to be done in working out the solution. But I was rather shocked to discover the original form of this … Continue Reading
The ‘mark of the beast’ in Rev 13.18 is the most notorious and talked-about aspect of the book. [The beast from the land] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or … Continue Reading
Brian McLaren is well known as a leader in the North American ‘Progressive’ movement, which many are finding a refreshing change from the ‘culture wars’ amongst evangelicals about Scripture and authority and its implications for theology and discipleship. He came to prominence with his 2004 book A Generous Orthodoxy, which sought to cut through the polarisations … Continue Reading
There’s a quotation that did the rounds earlier in the year from a Peter LaRuffa, who is one of the staff at Grace Fellowship Church which is in northern Kentucky: If, somewhere within the Bible, I were to find a passage that said 2+2=5, I would believe it, accept it as true and then do my … Continue Reading
In my previous post, I highlighted the dilemma we find ourselves in when there is a dissonance between our experience of hearing God speak through Scripture and our experience of engaging in more reflective study of the same texts. I characterised these two sets of experiences as follows: Immediacy — Delay Clarity — Ambiguity Relevance … Continue Reading
Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Associate Senior Research Fellow, Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod and Archbishops' Council. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo
This blog is reader supported, not funded in any other way. Why not make a one-off or regular donation. You do that directly through PayPal
or through Ko-fi.
Gospel commentary index Lectionary Year A
Andrew Goddard Bible biblical interpretation Biblical literacy biblical theology Christmas Church of England culture discipleship discussion doctrine eschatology evangelism gay General Synod Grove guest Hermeneutics History hope interpretation James Blandford Baker Jesus John's gospel Justin Welby leadership lectionary Luke Luke's gospel Matthew ministry mission New Testament Paul politics preaching Revelation same sex marriage same sex unions sexuality theology video Year A Year B Year C
