There is a line in a hymn, often sung at Advent, that refers to Jesus as “great David’s greater Son”.
(a) What was so great about David?
(b) Why is Jesus referred to as ‘David’s Son’?
(c) In what ways is Jesus ‘greater’ than David?…
(a) What had Philip been doing before this episode (see Acts 8:5-8)? Why might God have led him away from all of this, in order to evangelise this one man? Do you think that God sometimes takes us away from one thing (that seemed to be working very nicely, thankyou very much) and sends us to another (that doesn’t look so promising)?
(b) We sometimes talk about ‘beginning where people are’. The Ethiopian’s starting point was a passage of Scripture (Isaiah 53).…
In The Big Book of Bible Difficulties, Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe identify a number of mistakes people make when approaching the difficulties and alleged contradictions of the Bible.
Although these authors’ view of biblical inerrancy is not one that commands my complete agreement, I am happy to offer (with a few minor modifications) their main points on the subject of approaching Bible difficulties:
1. Assuming that the unexplained is inexplicable: Humility requires that we admit that we don’t have all the answers. …
What factors tend to increase the reliability of recollective memory, and how do these relate to the historical reliability of the Gospels?
Richard Bauckham identifies the following:
There are some strange things going on with numbers in the Bible – especially in the Old Testament.
How do we make sense of them?
The biblical use of numbers should be understood in the same sorts of ways that we should understand other parts of God’s ancient revelation: in its historical and cultural context. It is unreasonable to expect number to be used with anything like the degree of precision that we expect nowadays.…
Colossians 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son 1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross—through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Steve Chalke (The Lost Message of Paul, ch. 19) argues that, if Paul’s words in Colossians 1:19f mean anything, ‘all’ must mean ‘all’, and that the ‘reconciliation of all things’ must include all people, without exception.…
Although we do not deny that the Holy Spirit, in his inspiration of Scripture, is often happy to give us approximations and generalisations, where necessary he calls our attention to the smallest detail of grammar.
Consider:
Hebrews 12:27 ‘The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.’
The argument turns on one phrase – ‘once more’.
Galatians 4:9 ‘But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces[a]?…
Here are the notes of a week-day evening session I was invited to do at my home church (Holy Trinity, Norwich).
We’re including under this heading: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
The books of the Old Testament, set to a possibly recognisable tune!!
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Ruth,
Samuel, Samuel, Kings, Kings and Chronicles,
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.
Job, Psalms and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel,
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.…
Fee and Stuart (How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth) outline three benefits of the Psalms for both their ancient and modern readers:-
1. ‘The psalms can serve as a guide to worship. By this we mean that the worshiper who seeks to praise God or to appeal to God or to remember God’s benefits can use the psalms as a formal means of expression of his or her thoughts and feelings.…
In Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know about Them), Bart D. Ehrman writes about one of his ‘favourite apparent discrepancies’ in John’s Gospel:-
…It ‘comes in Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse,” the last address that Jesus delivers to his disciples, at his last meal with them, which takes up all of chapters 13 to 17 in the Gospel according to John. In John 13:36, Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, where are you going?”
