Jonathan Lo (pp.62-75) revisits the Petrine speech found in Acts, in light of Greco-Roman parallel historical works and how those works handle speech material. He quotes my colleague Craig Keener affirmatively when he says that historians were allowed to put speeches in their own vocabulary, provided he did not invent content. Lo however concludes that the fact that there is a resemblance between the speeches in Acts and those in ancient historians in regard to both style and content is... Read more

The essay by Helen Bond comes to grips with the issue of whether or not Papias’ testimony about Peter being behind Mark’s Gospel, or more accurately whether it is his testimony translated by Mark from original Aramaic to Greek is historically probable. Bond focuses on Joel Marcus’ much commended commentary on Mark to discuss reasons why Papias should perhaps not be assumed to be giving accurate information in this case, perhaps in order to rescue Mark’s Gospel from it’s not... Read more

The next essay in the volume Peter in Early Christianity is by another old and now departed friend Sean Freyne of Dublin. Freyne’s charge was to deal with the archaeological work at what was probably Peter’s home town, namely Bethsaida, and he does not shy away from the controversy as to whether Bethsaida Julia dug by Rami Arav and company is the right site, or if another one further around the lake is the correct locale. He favors Bethsaida Julia.... Read more

The book entitled Peter in early Christianity, is a collection of essays from a conference at Edinburgh hosted by Larry Hurtado and Helen Bond in 2013, which was an attempt to assess the state of play about the ‘Rock’ known as Simon as it occurs in Biblical scholarship, and perhaps particularly to counteract the neglect of Peter in Protestant scholarship in modernity. Really in my life time there have only been a very few serious studies by Protestant scholars on... Read more

Reynolds Price was for many years a professor at Duke, and one of the more beautiful and gifted writers from the Carolinas. James Taylor set one of his poems to music– and it seems appropriate to offer it here at the cusp of a New Year. Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpYYJgvgDmo Read more

A.W. Tozer: “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.” Read more

Protestants since the Reformation have practiced what can only be called benign neglect at best when it comes to Simon Peter. This is even true at the scholarly level. Lots and lots of studies on Paul, too few on Peter. The painting above (which Word Press insists on doing sideways, but if you click on the picture, Peter straightens up) is in some ways all too representative of the problem– Protestants giving a sideways glance at Peter while arguing again... Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEMLfMRAyrM Read more

Will there be Rest for the restless, Hope for the hopeless, Love for the loveless, When Kingdom comes? Will there be Faith for the faithless Sense for the senseless Self for the selfless When Kingdom comes? Will there be Homes for the homeless, Sight for the sightless Joy for the joyless, When Kingdom comes? Will there be Mercy for the merciless, Care for the careless, Help for the helpless, When Kingdom comes? Will there be Talent for the talentless, Grace... Read more