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Mk 16:8 – The ending of Mark’s Gospel

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Verse 8 forms a stangely abrupt ending to the Gospel.  And yet, many of the oldest and best manuscripts do not have vv9-20.

According to Edwards, this presents ‘the gravest textual problem in the NT.’

Steve Wells (Skeptic’s Annotated Bible) thinks that believers find this longer ending ’embarrassing’.  But no: they find it puzzling, but not embarrassing.  Nearly every translation and modern commentary discusses the issue, agreeing with more or less certainty that the text is ‘doubtful’ in its authenticity.…

Rev 20:2 – ‘A thousand years’

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20:1 Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain. 20:2 He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan—and tied him up for a thousand years. 20:3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)…

1 Corinthians 4:1 – ‘under-rowers’?

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4:1 One should think about us this way—as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

The word ‘servants’, ‘hyperetas’, is thought to be derived from ‘eresso’, ‘to row’ and ‘hypo’, ‘below’, and thus to mean (‘literally’) ‘under-rower’.  Lay preachers and popular writers tend to make much of this.  Wiersbe, for example, writes:

‘The word translated ministers is literally “under-rowers.” It described the slaves who rowed the huge Roman galleys.

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Cross Vision 7 – Rorschach God

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A precis of chapter 7.

Often, what we think we see in other people, or God, is simply a projection of our own character and attitudes.

The Pharisees studies the Scriptures diligently.  But they failed to see Christ in them, because ‘they did not have the love of God in their hearts’ (Jn 5:39-42).  When our hearts are not right, misunderstanding abounds (Jn 2:19-22; 8:43; Mt 13:15).

Many (including Jesus’ disciples) expected a Messiah who brought military victory. …

Cross Vision 6 – The Heavenly Missionary

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A precis of chapter 6.

A missionary couple are assigned to an area where female genital mutilation is performed.  They realise that the practice is so deeply ingrained that it would be futile to confront it immediately.  So, for the time being, they seek to ameliorate its worst effects by providing anaesthesia and better surgical knives.  Only gradually are they able to convince the people to end the practice.

Is it unreasonable to suggest that God sometimes act like that? …

Cross Vision 5 – Building on tradition

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A precis of chapter 5.

This cruciform approach to interpreting Scripture may seem to be new (because it has not been taught in the church for 1500 years.  But, in fact, it can be traced back to the early church and (most importantly) to Scripture itself.  And in the following ways.

(a) Finding Christ crucified in all of Scripture.  Martin Luther has been rightly characterised as ‘the theologian of the cross’.  For Luther, the cross was the key to interpreting the Bible. …

Cross Vision 4 – Revolting beauty

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Summarising chapter 4:

In a detective novel, the meaning of an event depends on where it is in the story and how it relates to what comes before and after it.

It is just so with the Bible: although many read it as they would a cookbook, where the order of recipes is not particularly important, it does in fact tell a story, and the position of a given event within that story may be very significant.…

Greg Boyd’s conundrum

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Greg Boyd’s ‘conundrum’ is addressed in two books – the longer The Crucifixion of the Warrior God and the shorter (but still substantial) Cross Vision.  It is the latter of these two books that I am currently working through.  But it is the Introduction to the former that contains a succinct statement of the ‘condundrum’ that motivated the writing of both books:

‘How are we to reconcile the God revealed in Christ, who chose to die for his enemies rather than to crush them, with the many OT portraits of Yahweh violently smiting his enemies?

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Cross Vision 3 – A cruciform through-line

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Summarising chapter 3 of Greg Boyd’s Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence (Fortress Press, 2017).

What do we think about a wife who is repeatedly and viciously attacked by her husband, and yet stands by him because she is convinced that ‘He loves me’.

Why do so many Christians confess that ‘God is love’ and yet believe that he does hurtful things to people (such as predestining large numbers of them to eternal punishment)?…

Mt 5:38 – “An eye for an eye”

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Matthew 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 5:39 But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer.”

The so-called lex talionis is found in Ex 21:24; Lev 24:19–20; Dt 19:21.

According to Greg Boyd (Cross Vision), this is the most ‘astonishing’ example of Jesus repudiating an OT law.  This law required a person’s punishment to correspond to the severity of their crime. …