Meaning is not in the eye of the beholder, though Lord knows, we are all active readers who bring our ideas and assumptions to the reading of the Bible. Here is another ‘spot on’ quote from Peter Gommes’ The Good Book p.26: “A text may have a life of its own, but that life depends upon the author who gave it life, investing it with an intention, a purpose, and a meaning. The text therefore already participates in something other... Read more
Peter Gommes has many good things to say in his bestseller ‘The Good Book’, not least is what he says on p. 12 about how not and how to do Bible study. “Bible studies tend to follow this route. The Bible is simply the entry into a discussion about more interesting things , usually about oneself. The text is a mere pretext to other matters and usually the routine works like this: A verse or passage is given out,... Read more
At least I’m in good company in having to deal with this question over and over again. BW3 Read more
We have stressed before, and I would stress again that the speech was a far more widespread and influential phenomenon than the letter in the Mediterranean world in which our authors wrote. This is so not just because only 10-15% of the populus was literate (i.e. could read and write), but also because rhetoric, Greco-Roman rhetoric and its various forms and modifications (Attic, Asiatic, Jewish) had a much longer and more influential history than letter writing. When letter writing comes... Read more
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/pompeii-artifacts-returned-scli-intl/index.html Read more
BEN: One of the more critical insights in the following chapter is as follows—” the truth—the tragedy—is that the Holy Spirit will not give believers words of successful self-defense. The Spirit is not an escape clause or a defense attorney.” (p. 122), but the Spirit does give the speaker words to witness by to the authorities. This comports well with the theology of faithful witness even unto death stressed in Revelation. And it is so very alien to modern escapist... Read more
BEN: I appreciate your emphasis on how the church from time to time has domesticated the Spirit, making it rather like Mr. Rogers, rather than a dangerous dynamo. Hard sayings like Mk. 3.29 and par. Warn us against such a misreading. Of course. the BIG question is what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? What counts as that terrible eternal sin that won’t be forgiven? JACK: My mentor, Jerry Hawthorne, once gave this simple definition: attributing to Satan what is... Read more
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