Isa 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
Lit. ‘Out of [or after, or because of] the travail of his soul he will see and be satisfied.’
‘Travail’ signifies severe labour, or painful exertion. It refers to the entire work of toil and suffering of the Lord, which were included in his offering of his soul for sin, and which was consummated when he was ‘cut off out of the land of the living.’…
2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the time of King Herod, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem 2:2 saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
As to the identity of this star:
1. Some regard the entire story as fictional. Ehrman (Jesus, Interrupted) makes no attempt to make sense of the account. …
How does ‘main-stream’ critical scholarship deal with the biblical narratives of the birth of Jesus?
What follows is based on this article by Helen K. Bond, senior lecturer in New Testament at the University of Aberdeen. I also draw on her book The Historical Jesus: A Guide For the Perplexed (HJ). A similar line is taken by Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III in this article.
First, Bond notes that only Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ birth, and their stories are quite different. …
It has long been recognised that in the Synoptic Gospels (Mark especially) Jesus is frequently recorded as commanding people not to speak about certain aspects of his identity and activity.
For example:
Peter Lewis (The Glory of Christ, 400) reminds us that the doctrine of Christ’s return affects everything in the Christian life. It:-
Easy to trivialise: spoof job descriptions clergy and church secretary; JCSS: ‘Prove to me that you’re no fool/walk across my swimming pool’; Paul Daniels. But it has all the signs of an eyewitness account of a very real and altogether alarming experience.
V45 – urgent separation. Why? Jn 6:15 – ‘Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.’
He caused their crisis. But why was it such a crisis?…
Two banquets.
Disciples return, excited but exhausted. They need to rest and recuperate, but the crowd chases after them.
‘…because they were like sheep without a shepherd.’
They had leaders a-plenty – Herod, and the priests and the scribes. They could boast a magnificent temple, a large income, thronging congregations. But they were not doing their job.
Moses and Joshua were often referred to as ‘shepherds’ because they led the people not only to safety, but to victory. …
Mostly, when Christians confess that ‘Jesus is Lord’, they mean, ‘Jesus is Lord of my heart’, or ‘Jesus is Lord in my church’.
The biblical scope of this phrase is, however, much more sweeping. The risen Lord himself declared: ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth’ (Matthew 28:18). And Paul writes that God the Father ‘put all things under [Christ’s] feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all’ (Ephesians 1:22-23). …
What Christians mean when they say that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead may be helpfully clarified by saying what we do not mean.
1. The resurrected Christ is not a ghost. At first, that is what the disciples thought they had seen, but Jesus refuted the notion, (Lk 24:36–43). A ghost is a spirit without a body, but Jesus showed them that he had a real body.
2. The resurrection is not a resuscitation. …
