The Bible and Culture

'Preaching',it's what makes so much of the Protestant world go around. It's what many people go to church to hear--- not the singing, not the jingling of coins in the plate, not the appeals of the Sunday school class, or the peals of the church bells, but preaching. This is in some ways odd, as the NT say very little about preaching to the choir, or the already converted. Of all the many sermons in Acts, all but one of them is directed to the unconverted. Preaching seems to be an … [Read more...]

Here's another fine post by my friend Larry Hurtado. See what you think. BW3 by larryhurtado Last week (29-31 August) featured the 2013 British New Testament Conference (in St. Andrews), always a combination of scholarly papers (of varying persuasiveness), catching up with long-time colleagues, and meeting bright and energetic postgrad students from various universities. The BNTC was founded through the leadership efforts of J.D.G. Dunn and (the late) Graham Stanton, in discussions … [Read more...]

“…there was a peculiar fitness in the time that was selected for the revelation of Messiah to his people. But can we venture a step beyond, and say that we see in the popular mind of the day the germ of a natural development of the Christian scheme? The voice of prophecy had been silent for four centuries, but it was felt to be as the death-like stillness that precedes the hurricane. Hence, men with busy whisperings were anxiously looking for the coming of that great Terrible Day of the … [Read more...]

Here is a helpful post by my friend and colleague Larry Hurtado. See what you think BW3 by larryhurtado At a recent conference there was a paper presented in which there was repeated reference to the "performance" of passages from the Gospels in early Christian gatherings. Indeed, the presenter posited that this likely involved acting out passages, such as the narrative parables of Jesus. In recent years there have been a number of similar claims, and the word "performance" seems to … [Read more...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6_dnpBUm9KQ OR https://bay168.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#n=1343225687&fid=5&mid=c6472f44-2182-11e3-ae74-00237de45604&fv=1 Here is an excellent conversation starter on the stated topic in the heading above by my friend Dr. James Howell, senior minister at my home UM church in Charlotte N.C. There's a lot here I agree with, and some I don't, but regardless its an excellent way to begin to discuss this topic. … [Read more...]

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Here is a small map showing Corinth, the isthmus, and the two seaports east (Cenchreae) and west (Laecheum) which served Corinth. The modern day canal through the Isthmus did not exist in Paul's day---- While the canal was begun to be dug in Nero's day, in fact it was not completed prior to Napoleon's day! In Paul's day little ships were placed on carriers and dragged across the two miles of the isthmus on a road called the diolkos. One more aspect of city life is worth … [Read more...]

Very little was left of Corinth when the Romans leveled in the 2nd century B.C., except the ancient temple of Apollo, seen here... There were however in Paul's day shops like the one which can be seen here... And as the previous post showed, a major theater and an odeon as well to keep the folks entertained. Out in front of the theater was found an inscription stone. This one... Notice the inscription is in Latin and reads 'Erastus for the office of aedile, paved … [Read more...]

"The past is like a foreign country, they do things differently there". This is all too true, and far too much of the trouble with modern interpretation of the Corinthian correspondence today has to do with what I will call bad visualization. So as something of a corrective here are some schematics of what Paul's Corinth, around A.D. 50 will have looked like. What these schematics (mostly found in guide books on Corinth or study Bibles) have in common is they represent ROMAN … [Read more...]

Sometimes the critics are just plain out to lunch, or in this case, off on a pub crawl. This is one of those times. The new movie with Simon Peg (aka Scotty in the Star Trek reboot), Martin Freeman (aka Watson and also Mr. Hobbit) and several other familiar British faces on the surface might have been a fun, and funny movie. Its given a 90% rating by critics and its been out several weeks now. The premise is simple--- get the old gang together and head back to the old hometown for a night … [Read more...]