According to popular Christian tradition, the titles Son of God and Son of Man refer respectively to Christ's divine and human natures. Jesus is the Son of God because he is God and he is the Son of Man because he is man. But as is the case with the designation 'Immanuel,' I argue that … Continue reading Why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man?
Christmas and Theology Theological constructs, while often helpful, sometimes prevent us from hearing what Biblical texts have to say. This is certainly the case with scripture's dual nativity stories. Two theological concerns in particular blur our reading of these stories. Since the two birth narratives are divergent and sometimes contradictory, in our desire to defend the … Continue reading Immanuel: theology or history?
Songs about David Luke adorns his nativity story with two psalms of thanksgiving, Mary's Magnificat and Zechariah's Benedictus. In wording and theme both have much in common with Hannah's song concerning the birth of the prophet Samuel and the establishment of the Davidic dynasty. In exultation Hannah announces that through David and his sons "the … Continue reading Christmas according to Mary and Zechariah
The Dragon and his Beasts In accordance with the overall historical thrust of this blog, I'd like to demonstrate in this post how the spiritual demonic realities addressed by the Biblical authors are ultimately subordinate to and representative of historical-political concerns—not the other way around. Put simply, Satan and his demons personify pagan political power. … Continue reading The Devil and his Demons: the function of the demonic in Revelation
All of Them? John P. Meier's excellent A Marginal Jew series attempts to peer behind the curtain of the Gospel portraits to glimpse the Jesus of history. In broad brushstrokes, Meier's restrained and measured work produces an Elijah-like eschatological prophet of the age to come. Scholars like Paula Fredriksen and Dale Allison reach similar conclusions. In his … Continue reading Which Parables go back to Jesus?
We've discussed before how Jesus' apocalyptic expectations in large part determined his teachings on violence. In light of the wrath coming upon Jerusalem (Mark 13/Luke 24, Matthew 21:1-14) and upon Greco-Roman Paganism (Matthew 25:31-36, Revelation 18, Acts 17:31, 1 Cor 2:6), Jesus considered retribution and self-defense to be acts of disbelief. God was about to … Continue reading Jesus and Violence: The Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat
A growing number of theologians argue that Hell should be understood as a place of cleansing rather than as a place of damnation or annihilation. They insist that God's judgement and wrath are the mechanisms of universal reconciliation—the instruments of God's love. This view should be rejected for a few primary reasons. Purification or Destruction? … Continue reading A (Brief) Case Against Purgatorial Universalism
Until rather recently, the Gospel of John has been systematically excluded as a source for the historical Jesus. It has been popularly considered a "concocted Gospel." Accordingly, scholarship tends to understand John as a derivative spiritualization of Synoptic material. As such, the Fourth Gospel contains no viable independent memory of the historical Jesus. This critical … Continue reading John and the Historical Temple-Disturbance
The Gospel in our contemporary context is most often associated with Jesus' death for sins: the sinless savior sacrificed himself to rescue us from death, hell, and/or God's wrath. His deed of obedience is effective for all people for all time. Such an understanding of the Gospel sometimes stands in tension with how the Bible … Continue reading Revelation 14 and the good news about Jesus
I observed in the last post some similarities between Matthew's nameless female Canaanite mendicant and the Canaanite prostitute Rahab. I want to try to draw that connection a little tighter here and show that these women play a similar role in their respective narratives. They are not simply righteous gentile women, they are unlikely harbingers … Continue reading Canaanite women and the New Conquest
Scribes of the Kingdom 