Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedon and heir of the great Macedonian empire, proved himself in battle and militarism, expanding the Macedonian empire through strategic military victories across Turkey (334, 333), the Holy Land (Coele-Syria, 332), Egypt (332), Babylon (331) and on into India (324). In 323 BCE he becomes ill in Babylon [...]
No “Ands” in Grace
Jan 28, 2013 @ 0:04 By 20 Comments
Sarah Bessey’s beautiful post (more at the link) on the sufficiency of Jesus: What are some more “ands”? You need Jesus….. and circumcision. You need Jesus …. and baptism. You need Jesus … and the right voting record. You need Jesus … and natural family planning…. Let go of your “should” and your “ought to” [...]
From the Shepherd’s Nook: Review of John Ortberg
Nov 30, 2012 @ 5:06 By 4 Comments
Again, the Friday Shepherd’s Nook column is by John Frye. I am using John Ortberg’s latest book, Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (Zondervan: 2012) for our adult Sunday School class. The class is a mixture of adult singles and younger and older couples. A reaction I got from an [...]
Jesus for the Perplexed
Nov 21, 2012 @ 11:02 By 9 Comments
A recent book in the excellent “Guide for the Perplexed” series is by Helen K. Bond, a notable New Testament historian at the University of Edinburgh. Her book is called The Historical Jesus. Raising this topic means we need to get a few ideas straight again. The historical Jesus is the reconstruction, by an individual scholar, of [...]
Historical Jesus Contrarian
Oct 10, 2012 @ 4:55 By 58 Comments
Well, I didn’t get to attend the Historical Jesus conference last weekend led by Chris Keith and Anthony LeDonne, but I’ve seen a couple reports taking me to task for my view, which was part of the book published, though I’m not sure the posts are taking my definitions seriously enough, so let me clarify. [...]
Revisionist Jesus
Jun 14, 2012 @ 0:03 By 22 Comments
The place to begin a discussion of heresy in America is with historical Jesus studies, so argues Ross Douthat in Bad Religion. He’s a detective for nonsense, though I’m not sure he comprehends either the essence of the discipline in historical Jesus studies or the work of the vast majority — instead he focuses more [...]
Tom Wright on How (not) to Read the Gospels
Apr 11, 2012 @ 5:00 By 22 Comments
Tom Wright’s new book, How God Became King, complains that too many Christians have developed bad habits in how to read the Gospels. The essential complaint is this one: what we need to get from the Gospels we can often find; if that is how we use the Gospels then that is also why they [...]
Jesus and Theocracy
Apr 9, 2012 @ 5:05 By 31 Comments
The problem with so many Christian perceptions of Jesus is that it is a “body without the cloak” — Tom Wright’s expression in his new book How God Became King. That is, if we remove the bits at the beginning and the end – namely, the bits in the creeds, all you get is: Jesus [...]
The Great Gulf from Canon to Creed
Apr 4, 2012 @ 5:07 By 56 Comments
I was reading a review of Tom Wright’s new book, How God Became King, at The Gospel Coalition site, and it was a review that was so far out of touch with the book I read in manuscript form that at one spot in reading the review I wondered if I had confused that review’s [...]
Vatican Fragment
Mar 21, 2012 @ 12:58 By 7 Comments
By Giacomo Galeazzi: There’s a bit of sensationalism and a bit of news and a bit of history (belief in resurrection after three days) in this recent discussion out of the Vatican: Professor, what is the Gabriel’s Revelation stela on show in the “Verbum Domini” exhibition in the Vatican? “It is an extraordinary archaeological find [...]
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