Yes, it is true that Paul’s polemic in Galatians is aimed at the Judaizers, but he is also very critical of Peter and even Barnabas, two fellow Jewish Christ followers, for hypocrisy, for ‘living like a Gentile’ which can only mean not living fully in accord with Jewish law, and yielding under pressure to do so. The Pauline Gospel involved an inherent critique of early Judaism for the majority of Jews not recognizing their own Messiah, and for failing to... Read more

Having reflected on the various comments posted on my original and second blog post about the killing of students at Parkland High recently, certain things should be added. I was heartened to see the response of the high school students themselves demanding change in the gun laws in Florida. Maybe the millennials can force our recalcitrant politicians to take actions. To the naysayers who insist this will not make any difference, I will say you are very wrong. Take for... Read more

The chapter on Paul and the Law is both interesting and strange (pp. 95-130), it is interesting because it deals in some detail with what Paul says about the Law (emphasizing texts like when Paul says in Rom. 3.31 that he does not overthrow the law, he upholds it, and rejecting Barclay’s detailed argument in Paul and the Gift that since the Christ event the Mosaic covenant was like a defunct currency). Amazingly, she wants to argue that the whole... Read more

Another of the remarkable, and likely untenable, arguments in this book is the contention that in Galatians, when Paul refers to persecution for not preaching circumcision, and also that the Judaizers were fearful of persecution for not preaching circumcision that the reference must be to Roman or other pagan authorities doing the persecuting (see p. 91). But Paul says that the circumcision party is the one that came from Jerusalem and is part of that church of God. Surely, they... Read more

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were real innovators when it came to comic books. The Black Panther showed up for the first time in 1966 in an issue of the Fantastic Four, well before DC or other comic book lines were even considering risking such a character. I remember— I bought that issue of FF. Now of course we have this whole ever increasing line of movies from Marvel, with major actors lining up to play parts. Finally, the technology... Read more

As for Paul the persecutor (see Acts 7 and 8.1 and 9.1) she theorizes that Paul was practicing the 39 lashes, rather than urging stoning, despite what Acts says. This however not only flies in the face of Acts, it also flies in the face of 1 Cor. 15.9– I persecuted ‘the church of God’. Who is that? He does not say the synagogue, or even Jewish followers of Jesus in the synagogue, he says ‘the church of God’ which... Read more

Before Parkland High in Florida, there was all this—— 2018 2 killed in Kentucky high school shooting 2017 2 killed in New Mexico high school shooting 2017 1 killed in Washington high school shooting 2017 2 killed in CA elementary school shooting 2016 1 killed in SC elementary school shooting 2014 4 killed in Washington high school shooting 2014 1 killed in Oregon high school shooting 2013 1 killed in Colorado high school shooting 2013 1 killed in Nevada middle... Read more

I don’t know about you, but as a teacher, and after eighteen attacks on school children in less than two months this year, and after the AR-15 assault rifle has been used in some ten school attacks to kill many of our innocent children over the last few years, it is time to say to the gun dealers, to the NRA, and to Congress and to our President—- ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! At a minimum, the lapsed assault weapons ban needs... Read more

One of the most important discussions, and the setting up of a taxonomy of terms comes at pp. 74-75. Here Fredricksen explains that proselytes were indeed considered Jews, that God-fearers or synagogue adherents however simply seem to have added Israel’s God to the worship of their ancestral deities. But there is this third category she conjures with— eschatological pagans, by which she means the ones foreseen in Scripture as showing up in the eschatological age and worshipping the Biblical God.... Read more

Because I have dealt in great detail with the numerous errors of a Schweitzerian approach to Pauline (and Jesus’) eschatology in my Jesus, Paul, and the End of the World, I don’t need to reiterate all that here. All that needs to be said is that Paul believed in the possible imminence of Christ’s return within his lifetime, but he did not affirm that ‘the last hour’ was already necessarily knocking on the door. Paul was not a date setter... Read more