The writer of Hebrews writes: “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things . . . . Continue Reading »
In Gethsemane, it seems that Jesus is being “reconsolidated” as the original Adam. His helpers, the disciples, flee from Him, leaving Him along to face His Satanic attackers. Maybe, though, the typology works differently. Perhaps we are to see Jesus-and-disciples as forming . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 26:36: Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. The word “Gethsemane” means “wine-press of oil.” It’s built from the same Hebrew root as Gath-Hepher, “the wine-press of the well,” a city in the tribal area of Zebulun, the birthplace of . . . . Continue Reading »
Toby Sumpter pointed out parallels between Matthew 18 and 26, specifically on the issue of “stumbling blocks.” Jesus condemns those who put stumbling blocks in the way of little ones, and predicts that the disciples will stumble over Him on the night of His arrest and trial. One . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus explains His arrest and the scattering of the disciples in terms of Zechariah 13:7-9, where Yahweh commands the sword, “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” This all happens at night (Matthew 26:31), the night that happens to be Passover. Scripture records . . . . Continue Reading »
Peter denies Jesus three times on the night of Jesus’ arrest and trial. The only other time the verb “deny” is used in the NT, it’s used of “self-denial,” which is immediately connected to “taking up the cross.” There are thus two options: Deny . . . . Continue Reading »
Josh Gibbs writes: “While it might be anachronistic to read it this way (modern Christianity has likely blown the idea of the ‘sword of the Spirit’ way out of proportion), it seems best to me that we understand two entirely different, separate swords in . . . . Continue Reading »
Ezekiel is the only OT writer to promise a “new heart” to Israel (18:31; 36:26). He promises hearts of flesh in place of hearts of stone. What has given the people of Judah hearts of flesh in the first place? Ezekiel 14:1-7 gives an answer: They have set (stone - gold and . . . . Continue Reading »
Near the end of his recent Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults , Christian Smith summarizes the argument of a 1995 article by N. Jay Demerath of the University of Massachusetts. Demerath writes, that the widely reported decline of liberal Protestantism . . . . Continue Reading »
Athanasius appeals to the baptismal formula to show that the Son must be Creator: If he re-creates in baptism along with the Father, He must have created from the beginning. But this raises the question, Is the Father insufficient in Himself? Athanasius, strikingly, does not answer by . . . . Continue Reading »
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