Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
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, …
David Ball writes: When people say, “We read the Bible differently from you,” it begs the question: is there a right or wrong way to read Scripture? In our post-modern context, it is easy for us to think that every reading of Scripture is as legitimate as another. If I read the Bible in a …
The lectionary reading for the so-called ‘Last Sunday after Trinity’ as we near the end of Year A is Matthew 22.34–46. Having had three symbolic actions from Jesus (entering the city, overturning the tables, withering the fig tree) and three parables (the two sons, the wicked tenants, the wedding banquet), we have now reached the …
As we approach Advent once more, we are confronted with issues around the End of the World. What was Jesus talking about in Matthew 24 and Mark 13? Did he and his earliest followers expect the world to end in their lifetime? What about popular ideas like the ‘rapture’ and the ‘tribulation’? Are they found …
Margaret Mowczko writes: There are several women mentioned in the New Testament who in the past have had their ministries downplayed. Even today, some question whether Phoebe was deacon or minister of her church (Rom. 16:1–2), or whether Junia was really an apostle. Junia and a woman named Nympha have even had their gender obscured and …
I write Bible reading notes for several organisations, and at the moment am writing for BRF’s Guidelines series. I recently wrote these notes on the Letter of Jude, which is a much neglected short letter, and offer them here for wider use. I have added in some questions for group discussion. Introduction The letter of …
Dr Gary Burnett has published a short study on the writing and theology of Paul under the title Paul Distilled. I had the chance to ask him about his book—why he wrote it, what approach he takes, and why it could be of help to us. IP: How did this book arise, organised in a series …
Major David Cavanagh of the The Salvation Army offers this response to Mitzi J. Smith’s reading of doule in Luke 1:38. “Was the Virgin Mary actually a slave?” That is the question raised by Mitzi J. Smith, J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, and Professor of Gender Studies at the …
The gospel lectionary reading for Lent 3 is John 4.5-42, probably the longest reading in the lectionary! It is strange contrast with readings a few weeks ago from the Fourth Gospel which were only a few verses. We are continuing with our progress through the catechetical pattern of the readings in Lent, looking at encounters …
The gospel lectionary reading for Lent 3 is John 4.5-42, probably the longest reading in the lectionary! The story is well-known—but common interpretations of the story are worth examining carefully. The woman is in some sense an ambiguous figure, but perhaps not in the ways we might expect. Join James and Ian and they explore …
David Instone-Brewer has written an article in this month’s Premier Christianity magazine, arguing that, because Paul cites Leviticus 20.18 in his neologism in 1 Cor 6.9, and Lev 20.18 uses an unusual word, Paul was only rejecting certain forms of same-sex sexual relationship. His argument is quite technical, but you can read it here. I …
