Q8.BEN: One last issue for this part of the discussion. It seems clear to me that Paul is trying to avoid the reciprocity spin cycle in his discussion in 1 Cor. 9. He is working to support himself in Corinth because there was a danger of his being co-opted to be an in house teacher by some wealthy Christian, and he didn’t want to take on those obligations which would not give him freedom to come and go and share... Read more
Q7.BEN: The discussion of 1 Tim. 3.1-14 is equally interesting. I’m not convinced however that these character descriptions are all that counter-cultural here. Some of them perhaps are, but not all of them, and in particular the one about not being a money-grubber was also a known negative criteria for pursuing the offices of the priesthood in pagan temples including the temple of Artemis. In one sense it is irrelevant that one can find examples of greedy priests, whether pagan... Read more
Here is the original form of the article I wrote for CT which appeared in their March 18th issue……. AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION— Mark 5.21-43 Ben Witherington, III There are all sorts of miracle stories in the Gospel of Mark—exorcisms (which are common in Mark and completely absent in John), nature miracles such as the feeding of the 5,000, healings of various sorts, and of course raising the dead. In Mark 5.21-43 we are presented with Jesus as... Read more
Q6b.BEN: I also found it puzzling that you found the Eve example not to have anything to do with her instruction, and yet the Genesis story tells us that only Adam received the proper instruction about the tree, and apparently did a lousy job of conveying the one commandment to Eve. In other words, she was deceived because she had not first been properly instructed, which Paul sees as the danger with these elite women he is discussing. Finally, I... Read more
A REVIEW OF RICHARD HAYS’ ECHOES OF SCRIPTURE IN THE GOSPELS, (BAYLOR, 2016) (A fuller and annotated version of this review will appear as an Appendix in my forthcoming book Isaiah, Old and New). I was teaching in Nova Scotia in June of 2015 and with the encouragement of a friend and the exhortation in Is. 55.1b in mind, I visited the local winery where they produce ice wines. What are ice wines you may ask? They are wines that... Read more
(The full review of the book will come in tomorrow’s blog post). “Richard B. Hays, The George Washington Ivy Chair of New Testament, Duke University, one of world’s most important and celebrated New Testament scholars, will release his most important book in June (Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, Baylor University Press [add link]). I had the chance to discuss the book with Dean Hays.” http://baylorpr.es/sEchoes BEN: Richard this book has been long in the making, as you explain in... Read more
1993 seems like a very long time ago these days. It was the year I went to Boston and ran the Boston marathon with about 5,000 others. In those days there was no need for a certain qualifying time unless you wanted to compete for a timed outcome. I didn’t I wanted to just run and finish the Boston marathon as a personal goal. I had run the Cleveland in 1990, but this was the big enchilada, so to speak... Read more
In the ongoing debate in Methodism about the passages in the OT and NT that say that same sex sexual activity is immoral, one of the strategies of those who would change the Discipline’s statements that affirm this Biblical stance, is to suggest that some parts of the Bible are less inspired than others, or worse, argue to de-canonize such passages. Here is a sane response to Adam Hamilton’s suggestions on that front. See what you think. BW3 Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In