Category Archives: Jesus Christ

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. …

Mark 1:41 – ‘Moved with anger’

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Mark 1:40f Now a leper came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!”  The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean.

Some ancient manuscripts have ὀργίζω, ‘angry or indignant’.  This may well be the correct reading.

In this case, we need to examine this ‘anger’. …

Mt 28; Mk 16; Lk 24; Jn 20 – Do the resurrection accounts add up?

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[This is an update of a piece first posted in 2013]

The difficulties involved in reconciling the details of the resurrection narrative of the four Evangelists are well known.

Let us begin with the question of how many women went to the tomb.

Mt 28:1 Now after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

Mk 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought aromatic spices so that they might go and anoint him.…

The magi – Nabatean courtiers?

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In his book Mystery of the Magi, Dwight Longenecker develops a case for the Magi of Matthew 2 being courtiers from the kingdom of Nabatea.

Longenecker writes:

‘At the time of Jesus’ birth, the city of Petra was the thriving capital of the Nabatean kingdom, a major power in the Middle East. Covering most of the Sinai Peninsula and extending halfway along the eastern coast of the Red Sea, the Nabatean kingdom, at its height, spread across northern Arabia and present-day Jordan to Damascus in Syria.’

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The Magi – the Damascus connection

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Dwight Longenecker, in his book Mystery of the Magi, proposes that the magi were courtiers from Nabatea (capital: Petra) in Arabia.

Their journey would have been undertaken on horseback and would have taken a few days.

We know from Matthew’s account that they returned by ‘another route’.  This might have taken them to Damascus (which was at that time also part of Arabia, but later became part of the Roman empire).

If the magi sheltered in Damascus, they would have been ‘in their own country’ but sheltered both from Herod and from their own king, Aretas III. …

John 19:14, etc. – On which day of the week was Jesus crucified?

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The story of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life (‘Holy Week’, or ‘Passion Week’) is told in great detail in the four Gospels.

But there are some apparent discrepancies which sceptics seize on in order to undermine the historical accuracy of the narrative.

For example, Judith Redman supposes that she is speaking for many when she states that

‘scholars who have looked at what we can know about the historical Jesus from the Gospels have generally decided that the answer is “not much”.’

…

Preach like Jesus

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According to Luke 4:43, preaching was Jesus’ highest priority.  But what does it mean for preachers today to preach like Jesus?  Alistair Begg outlines four ways:

1. Present a crossroads.  Jesus commanded a response.  No-one could remain neutral or indifferent.  When we preach we, too, should present a crossroads to our hearers.  ‘Here are the two directions you might take: which will it be?’  Like Paul, we should be willing to implore our hearers regarding the choice that lies before them (2 Cor 5:20).…

Mt 13/Mk4/Lk8 – The Parable of the Sower – Exposition

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It was springtime by the Sea of Galilee. Great numbers came enthusiastically to hear our Lord preach, v2, but would they remain faithful? The seed was being faithfully sown, but what would the harvest bring? We can picture Jesus sitting in the prow of a boat, pointing his hearers to the fields where the green corn shoots a promising a rich harvest. But how much of the seed scattered by the sower would be fruitful?

Our Lord, knowing that many who thronged to him would, sooner or later, neglect, or misunderstand, or reject his message, gives a solemn word of warning in the form of a parable.…