Month: April 2021

  • The Gospel of Mary: Background

    The Gospel of Mary: Background

    In the first few centuries after Jesus, there was an enormous variety of understandings of who He was, and what His life, death, and resurrection meant. On this topic quite a few contenders for the title of ‘sacred book’ were written and circulated, most of which didn’t make it into our official Bible. One of…

  • Time and Eternity

    Time and Eternity

    The ancient Greeks had a vocabulary for Time that may be helpful for understanding various passages in the New Testament. Three words we’ll be considering are ChRONOS (usually translated just ‘time’), KAIROS (usually translated ‘opportune time’), and AIŌN (usually translated ‘eternity’ or ‘age’). First we’ll consider ChRONOS and KAIROS, then AIŌN. ChRONOS is the passage…

  • “All Scripture is God-Breathed”

    “All Scripture is God-Breathed”

    Every scripture [is] God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for improvement, for instruction in justice, in order that the person of God be capable, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17) This is one of the primary verses supporting the unique status of the Christian Bible. There is an aspect to this verse,…

  • “I Will Never Leave You”

    “I Will Never Leave You”

    In English, double negatives theoretically cancel each other out — or, more accurately they’re considered bad grammar. Not so in Greek — they use double negatives for emphasis: Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one dot-of-an-I or cross-of-a-T will not not pass away from the law until all be fulfilled.…

  • Imagining The Eternal Risen Christ

    Imagining The Eternal Risen Christ

    In my reading travels I’ve come across two quotes which articulate an extraordinarily expansive imagining of The Eternal Risen Christ. (They’re not quick reads! I found them worth several careful readings.) + + + “[F]or the Gospel is not merely the narration of what has been; it is the sublime narration of what is and…