Matthew 28:18-20: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age. Baptism is a naming ceremony. . . . . Continue Reading »
Philip Goodchild ( Theology of Money (New Slant: Religion, Politics, Ontology) , pp. 6-7 ) offers this gloss on Jesus’ opposition of God and walth in Matthew 6: “God and wealth are set in competition; for time, in terms of ‘storing up treasures’; for attention, in terms of . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Exhortation to Martyrdom ( Origen: An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer, and Selected Works , p. 61 ), Origen ponders why Jesus would have resisted martyrdom by asking His Father to remove the cup from him. Origen quotes from the synoptics, each of which quotes Jesus praying for the removal . . . . Continue Reading »
As many dramatically-inclined Bible teachers have said, the page that separates Old and New Testaments shouldn’t be there. It’s theologically indefensible since it bewitches us into thinking that we have two Bibles instead of one. That page is a disaster for literary reasons too. . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 5:23: If you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Jesus says that whoever is angry with his . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus gives two sets of instructions in the Sermon on the Mount. Some works, He says, are like lights on a lampstand, which shine before men to bring glory to the Father in heaven. Some works (fasting, prayer, alms), though, must be done in secret, before the Father alone, in the dark as it were. A . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus says we should deal with lust with violent decisiveness. If the eye, or the hand, or any other body part offends, it should be removed. The motivation Jesus gives is that it is better for us to enter life disabled than to have our entire body burned in the lake of fire. Is Jesus teaching a . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew is famously organized by five large blocks of teaching (chs. 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 23-25). At least numerically, if not otherwise, it hints that Jesus is the new Moses, bringing five new “books” from the mountaintop and then sending His disciples out into the world to read out those . . . . Continue Reading »
When the Pharisees criticize Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating, Jesus responds by quoting from Isaiah 29:13: “this people draws near with their words and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” He immediately goes on to teach His . . . . Continue Reading »
Like his earlier book on Revelation, Wes Howard-Brook’s “Come Out My People!”: God’s Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond has its goofy moments, as when he claims that Jesus completely rejected “imperial economics,” by which he means the money economy that . . . . Continue Reading »
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