1 John opens reminiscent of both the Gospel of John (thematically) and Luke/Acts (in contrast). That is, the vocabulary and ideas resemble John (the Word of life made visible, eternal life). But the point-of-view contrasts Luke. Whereas Luke says he had to investigate and talk to witness, because he wasn’t a firsthand eyewitness himself, 1Jo 1:1 and 1Jo 1:3 strongly imply the opposite for the author (authors?) of 1 John. Note the plural “we” there, present from the first verses onwards. Is this a... Read more

I assume James gets his own Gospel Doctrine lesson because… Joseph Smith and James 1:5? Not sure, really.  But James is “the most socially conscious writing in the New Testament”(Brown, Introduction to the New Testament, 725), so it has that going for it. Like Timothy and Titus, this epistle lacks a Big Picture woven throughout. Like Timothy and Titus, it contains very practical advice. Like Timothy and Titus, it doesn’t get a lot of attention. The Letter of James is among the most neglected books... Read more

These letters are known as the Pastoral Letters. (Pastor came into English from Latin pastor, “shepherd.”) They are addressed not to congregations, but to individuals who are themselves ministering to congregations. Full of counsel, less of doctrine. And here, like Hebrews, most scholars are convinced that Paul didn’t write them. Why? The following is summarized from the conservative Protestant Word Biblical Commentary volume on the Pastorals by eminent Greek teacher William Mounce. (See his blog here.) There are several problems. A Historical Problem– These don’t... Read more

I’ve got a new feature here. Bible verses now have a NRSV pop-up when you mouse over them. Try it here, with Genesis 1:1. That means that I’ll now be repeating the book abbreviation or name when making references, necessary for it to work. Quotations that include references will now by modified slightly to include the book name so it will work there too. This functionality is an implementation of Reftagger, from Logos. Alas, it’s only with the Bible, so... Read more

I’ve got a new feature here. Bible verses now have a NRSV pop-up when you mouse over them. Try it here, with Genesis 1:1. That means that I’ll now be repeating the book abbreviation or name when making references, necessary for it to work. Quotations that include references will now by modified slightly to include the book name so it will work there too. This functionality is an implementation of Reftagger, from Logos. Alas, it’s only with the Bible, so LDS scripture references... Read more

First of all, I’ve made a Facebook page for Benjamin the Scribe. I’m not sure what one does with such pages, but feel free to become a fan there. Second, I’m hunkering down to finish my Genesis book, in preparation for something new and big, that I hope to be able to announce in December, if all goes well. Fingers crossed. Third, a bunch of the New Testament books by N.T. Wright are for sale on Kindle right now, as part of... Read more

I’ll be speaking tomorrow morning on BYU campus, as part of the conference of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology. The full schedule is here. My title is “Faith and Perfect Knowledge: Parsing Alma and the Hebrew Lexicon.” I look at an Israelite conception of “faith” which has strong overtones of certainty as a background of Alma 32. Does Alma share this conception, that faith borders on certainty? If not, what does Alma mean by “faith” and what is... Read more

Hebrews is fun and different. Note that it comes at the end of Paul’s letters, because way way back in the day, they were uncertain if it was one of Paul’s letters. Authorship– With very rare exceptions, few think Paul wrote it anymore, although LDS tradition has been resilient. LDS have generally tended to take the position that Paul was its author, based on the fact that Joseph Smith consistently referred to the author of the epistle as Paul.  This assumes, however,... Read more