With thanks to Tim Chester:
One verse in the New Testament suggests that reading is not without its dangers and pitfalls:-
Acts 19:19 – ‘Large numbers of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them up in the presence of everyone. When the value of the books was added up, it was found to total fifty thousand silver coins.’
Another verse points to the benefits and blessings of reading:
2 Timothy 4:13 – ‘When you come, bring with you the cloak I left in Troas with Carpas and the scrolls, especially the parchments.’…
“Excuse me. May I ask you a question? Is that man a preacher?” asked the nurse at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital.
“Yes. Why do you ask?” I said.
“Well, after a long day, when all visitors have left, he gets out of bed and goes from room to room. I think he is preaching and praying with people. Frankly, we cannot keep him in bed at night. We say, ‘Mr. Green, you must rest and get back into bed.’…
Romans 1:5 ‘Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.’
What is meant by ‘the obedience of faith’? Here are the main interpretative options:-
(a) ‘Faith’ may mean ‘the faith’, or the body of apostolic teaching. Compare Acts 6:7 – ‘obedient to the faith’. But the definite article is absent in the original, and the context in Romans (which emphases ‘faith’) is against this interpretation.…
Mark 2:25f – “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry—2:26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread…?”
According to 1 Sam 21:1-6, Ahimelech was high priest at this time. His son, Abiathar, became high priest shortly afterwards.
The problem is discussed from a sceptical perspective by this blogger.
The ESV Study Bible summarises two of the main approaches to harminisation:
…‘The incident with David actually occurred when Ahimelech, not his son Abiathar, was high priest (1 Sam.
Matthew 18:20 “Where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.”
Christians regularly appeal to this saying in order to reassure themselves that, no matter how few their numbers when they gather for public worship or for prayer, Jesus himself will be present.
Matthew Henry:
…‘Every believer has the presence of Christ with him; but the promise here refers to the meetings where two or three are gathered in his name, not only for discipline, but for religious worship, or any act of Christian communion.’
John 20:21 – “Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
(See also Jn 17:18 – “Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.”)
In what sense are Jesus’ disciples sent ‘just as’ he himself was sent?
The two ‘sendings’ use different Greek words: the first, apostellō, and the second, pempō. However, as Kruse explains, nothing theological should be made of this difference, because the two words are used interchangeably throughout John’s Gospel. …
Matthew 25:40 – “Just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.”
They are described as hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick, and imprisoned. But who are ‘these brothers of mine’?
Snodgrass regards this question as the most important issue in interpreting this parable.
Turning to consider in some details the various interpretations that have been offered:
1. Our Lord’s fellow-Jews?
Hagee espouses the Christian Zionist claim that a special debt of care is owed to the Jews. …
27:52f And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised. (They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.)
The issue to be discussed here is the historicity (or otherwise) of this account.
So-called ‘mainstream’ critical scholarship regards it as ‘legendary’. According to Harper’s Bible Commentary, for example,
…‘One wonders what the resurrected saints were doing between Good Friday and Easter.
1 Timothy 4:10 – ‘…the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers.’
Obviously, Paul was no universalist. So what interpretative options are left?
1. All, potentially, and believers, actually? Some, including Fee, think that Paul means that salvation is available to all, but effective for those who believe. This would be consistent with 1 Tim 2:6. Understood in this way, the verse becomes a strong support for the doctrine of universal (as opposed to particular) atonement. …
