Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
A few years ago I watched the film Gravity when it came out. The effects were spectacular, the photography breathtaking, the characterisations engaging, and the story held one’s attention throughout. It even raised some profound (religious?) questions about life, death and purpose. And yet, when I left the cinema, I could not decide whether I …
What do you find most irritating about this time of year? The drawing in of dark and cold nights? The hideous adoption of that consumerist import ‘Black Friday’? People putting up Christmas trees when we have only just started Advent? Being urged to spend more money by means of schmaltzy human interest mini-dramas? For me, …
In all three Synoptic gospels, Jesus concludes a conversation about the contrast between his teaching and practice and that of the Pharisees (and John the Baptist) by means of a parable about wine and wineskins. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the …
The letters of John form a remarkable collection of writing, usually place towards the end of the New Testament. The imagery is powerful; the language is engaging; and the teaching is immensely practical. I can still remember the impact of studying these letters in a small group not long after I came to faith as …
There is no denying that, for any modern reader, the Book of Revelation is a strange text; we will not learn from it by pretending that it does not present challenges. It does reveal things (as the name suggests), but that can simply make life more complicated and confusing. Many of us feel the same …
If you read the accounts of Jesus’ trial and death, three things might strike you. First, it is very important to each of the gospel writers; it would be absurd in a modern text about a person’s life to spend such a large proportion of what are comparatively short documents focussing on just a few …
It is often claimed that contemporary Christians ignore the biblical teaching that prohibits usury—usually interpreted to mean either lending at interest or lending at excessive interest. This is significant for three main reasons: The suggestion is then made that in other areas of ethical debate (sexuality, divorce, gender relations, the Sabbath principle, other areas of …
The gospel lectionary reading for Epiphany 4 in Year B is Mark 1.21–28, Mark’s account of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It is, like all the early parts of Mark, highly compressed, but it is packed full of fascinating detail which begins to set the agenda for Mark’s portrayal of Jesus. The episode is striking …
The gospel lectionary reading for Epiphany 4 in Year B is Mark 1.21–28, Mark’s account of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It is, like all the early parts of Mark, highly compressed, but it is packed full of fascinating detail which begins to set the agenda for Mark’s portrayal of Jesus. The episode is striking …
The theme for the Tyndale New Testament Study group this year is Luke and Acts, and we are meeting from Wednesday 3rd to Friday 5th July 2024 at High Leigh Conference Centre in Hertfordshire, just 20 minutes north of London by train and 45 minutes from Cambridge. It is an excellent site, with good accommodation …
Andrew Bartlett has written the outstanding study Men and Women in Christ: fresh light from the biblical texts which I think should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in this question. Here, he reviews another book on this subject, Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction (Crossway, 2021) by Kevin DeYoung. Looking at …
