Psalm 89 is a marvelous psalm. Simultaneously it praises God for his greatness and wonder and it sings in praise of what God does for Israel’s king. Ultimately, after singing the wonder of both, it pleads for a restoration of the kingship. The psalm provides a host of imagery for understanding what it means to [...]
In Fuller’s Biblical Division, we have a requirement that students use a gender-inclusive translation of the Bible (NRSV or TNIV) as their English translation. My students often ignore this, despite my desperate pleas, so I have to find ways of compelling them against their will. *ahem* This spring a student asked some good, pointed questions [...]
An interesting, if uneven, piece in by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker had this to say about Jesus: If God he was—not some Hindu-ish avatar or offspring of God, but actually one with God—then God once was born and had dirty diapers and took naps. The longer you think about it, the more astounding, [...]
From James McGrath’s blog: 1 Chronicles 29:20 depicts the Israelites worshipping/prostrating themselves before Yahweh and the king. One verb, two objects. The king is said a few verses later to sit on Yahweh’s throne. To claim that in Jewish literature no agent of God ever receives the same kind of worship that Jesus is depicted as [...]
Update: I’m just now listening to N. T. Wright’s speech from Friday night. He says pretty much exactly what I said in “Hays v. Wright” part 2. Glad somebody listens to me… Ok, so, it’s the other way ’round. So sue me…
This is the second part of my engagement with Richard Hays’s critique of N. T. Wright at the Wheaton Theology Conference last week. I left off last time with a suggestion that we have to separate the idea of a “resurrection hermeneutic” (Yay!) from an “incarnation hermeneutic” (Boo!). This time I need to say a [...]
Note: the following is part 5 of an ongoing series reprising posts from my former blog, Sibboleth. The Structure of the Universe (Part 5: Cur Homo?) Ever get the sense that Christians are apologetic about the fact that Jesus was a human? We so often act as though the cardinal element of the Christian confession [...]
At the Wheaton Theology Conference on N. T. Wright, Richard Hays gave a critical assessment of Wright’s Jesus, as represented in Jesus and the Victory of God. I want to respond to this lecture because it brings to the surface the passion behind my next major research project on the humanity of Jesus. First off, [...]
I’ve been enjoying the debates with the good Dr. Morales on the Christology of the Gospels (part 1, part 2). But since the first set of discussions I’ve been thinking that the question we’re debating is interesting, but perhaps only partially helpful in making progress on the question of Jesus’ identity in the gospels. To [...]
Note: This is part two in a series of debates on the Christology of the Synoptic Gospels (part 1 here). Rodrigo Morales is starting off, I’m responding, and he is then given the opportunity of a rejoinder. RJM: I’m shamelessly stealing my second example from our esteemed Doktorvater Richard Hays. Hays notices a peculiar detail [...]
