Category Archives: Bible

Bart Ehrman’s ‘Top Ten’ spurious verses

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In his book Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman lists ten ‘top verses that were not originally in the New Testament’. These are:-

1 John 5:7 There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.

This is already recognised in modern Bible translations as a very late addition. For example, NIV (1984) states: ‘not found in any Greek manuscript before the sixteenth century’. If, as is possible, the wording of this verse was included in order to bolster the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, then it should be noted that that doctrine had been accepted by the Christian Church for centuries.…

Protective anonymity in the Gospels

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In Mark’s Gospel there are three characters that go unnamed but are later named in John’s Gospel. They are:

(1) the woman who anoints (Mk 14:3) who John reveals as Mary (Jn 12:3);

(2) the man who wields the sword (Mk 14:47) who John reveals as Simon Peter (Jn 18:10);

(3) the servant of the high priest (Mk 14:47) who John reveals as Malchus (Jn 18:10).

These are examples of what Richard Bauckham (Jesus and the Eyewitnesses) calls ‘protective anonymity’ in the earlier accounts: this was not needed in a later account, when fear of embarrassment or reprisals would have partly or wholly disappeared.…

Scripture as the word of God

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It seems quite fashionable these days for Christian people to insist that the expression ‘the word of God’ can only be applied to Jesus Christ, and not, say, to Scripture.  Steve Chalke, for example, writes: ‘the Bible itself is unambiguous: “The word of God” is a person not a book.’

However, the phrase is used in Scripture itself in several ways:-

  1. The gospel, Acts 4:31; 6:7; 13:5, 26;1 Cor 1:18; Heb 6:5; 1 Pet 1:23,25; 2 Cor 5:19; 2 Tim 2:9 4:2.
…

Jesus and the law

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The Old Testament has laws about all kinds of things – stealing, retaliations, charging interest, homosexual acts, and so on. How can we tell which of these Jesus intended to apply to his followers?

Various answers are given:-

  1. he intended all OT laws to apply (Christian Judaism)
  2. he intended only the moral and civil laws to apply (theonomy)
  3. he intended only the moral laws to apply (moral nomianism)
  4. he intended only laws he taught to apply (new covenant theology)
  5. he did not intend Christians to live by laws at all (antinomianism)

How can we begin to resolve this?…

Discussion starters, Paul’s epistles

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Ephesians 2:1-10; 3:14-21; Philippians 2:1-18; 2 Timothy 2:1-13; 3:10-17

The following questions were designed for a study in a series on the story-line of the Bible.  This particular study was entitled: ‘With God for ever – church expansion and growth: Growing in our relationship with God.’

There is a lot of Scripture here!  I’ve suggested one question from each of these five passages.  You might want to focus on one or two of the passages, or possibly get people to work in twos and threes.…

Mythology and the Old Testament

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Ancient Near Eastern myths appear to have influenced OT thought in a number of ways:-

1.  Figurative expressions

These include: (a) the voice of God as thunder (2 Sam 22:14); (a) the wind as winged (2 Sam 22:11; Ps. 104:3; Hos. 4:19); (c) the sun as winged (Mal 4:2); (d) a mountain in the north (Isa. 14:13; Ps. 48:2 where the gods assembled; (e) the land “flowing with milk and honey”, which borrows from ancient concepts of paradise; (f) a Book of Fate, which recorded even pre-natal days (Ps.…

Interpreting the Sermon on the Mount

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The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) has attracted a variety of approaches to interpretation:-

1.  The Sermon as an ‘Interim Ethic’.  This was the view of Schweitzer.  Jesus’ sermon sets out a radical ethic to be followed by Jesus’ followers in the light of the imminent end of the age.  However, Jesus was mistaken: the end did not arrive.  This interpretation has serious weaknesses.  The Sermon itself contains no hint of being a short-term ethic. …

The incomparable Word of God

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  1. Indestructible, Ps 119:89 Mt 24:35.
  2. Incorruptible, 1 Pet 1:23ff
  3. Indispensible, Deut 8:3 Mt 4:4.
  4. Infallible, Mt 5:18 Jn 17:17.
  5. Inexhaustible, Ps 92:5.
…

Steve Chalke and the Bible

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The Rev Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis Trust and high-profile Christian leader, has been making waves in the evangelical world for some time now.  First came his book (co-authored with Alan Mann), The Lost Message of Jesus, in which he rejected the doctrine of ‘penal substitution’.  Then, in early 2013, he came out in favour of same-sex marriage.

Most recently, in a paper entitled Restoring Confidence in the Bible, he has attempted to articulate his views about the nature and authority of the Bible. …

An evangelical approach to the Bible

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To be an evangelical is to seek to be true to Scripture because of the conviction that to be true to Scripture is to be true to Christ. A contemporary evangelical approach to Scripture has the possibility of combining appropriate pre-modern, modern and postmodern elements.

1. It will be pre-modern in the sense that it submits to the will of God as revealed in the text and thus puts the human will and its capacity for detached reason or local special pleading under that authority.…