Results from our recent quiz on Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels may surprise and challenge our spurious familiarity with the New Testament. Hello Messy Inspiration readers! The following are the first five results from the recent quiz posted. Hope you kept your answers handy. Correct answers are in red. Let’s get into it! Results for Question One When modern Christians and other people hear about the Gospel (“Good News”) concerning God, or Jesus Christ being raised from the dead, or... Read more
The centurion of Matthew 8:15-13 does not prove “Matthew” or Jesus gave Good News to non-Israelites. Last time, after a story about a certain angry young man, we discussed how “Matthew” the Gospel is thoroughly Israelite. It was not written for, by, or about Americans. The Matthean Jesus had no concerns for non-Israelites. “Matthew” preserves quite well in his tradition that the historical Jesus was a Middle Eastern master of the insult. And there was no worse insult, no more... Read more
Matthew, his Gospel, and Jesus within it, only had Israelite concerns and zero use for Gentiles. Two decades ago, an angry young man, once homeless and humiliated, stopped living in his car and got a job at his college campus. He acquired this new job from his honors program, put on ice while he survived in his car. So he worked as a tutor and note-taker for disabled students on campus. But that was just cover for his secret identity.... Read more
Quiz yourself on just how well you understand Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels. Spurious familiarity with Jesus and the Scriptures can keep us helplessly ignorant and unable to grow in better understanding our faith. To shake things up, I thought that maybe we could try out a little survey of questions in multiple choice format. This quiz should be both fun and challenging! On Monday I will post the answers with explanations. Have a go! Be sure to keep your... Read more
Images and their shadow-power, not worshiping false gods, is what Paul is addressing in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. This is the conclusion to a two-part series on understanding Paul and what he is writing about in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6. Last time, we broke down the seven authentic letters of Paul, the occasion of their composition, and gave an outline of the document called “1 Corinthians.” I encourage everyone before proceeding with this post, to first read the previous entry. Having done... Read more
Fixing spurious familiarity about Paul and his letter-writing results in understanding 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. Recently we revisited henotheism found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. After that, we covered how monotheism, surprisingly rare in the Bible, slowly developed. At the risk of beating a dead horse, once again I will reiterate that as a Catholic Christian, I am a Trinitarian monotheist. I believe in the Trinity of God and the humanity of Christ. What I reject is the currently popular, nonscholarly fundamentalist... Read more
Sowing Seeds of deeper understanding, this post is all about understanding the parables of Jesus and how they evolved in the Gospel traditions and beyond. In this Sunday’s Gospel we delve into parables in “Matthew,” specifically, a parable concerning sowing and a teaching on hearing and interpreting (Matthew 13:1-23). The author called “Matthew” interprets Jesus’ parable (13:18-23). According to this unknown, anonymous evangelist, “the seed” is Jesus’ proclaimed theocracy (kingdom of sky vault). But ultimately, Israelites must do more than... Read more
Personal Story from the author of these blogs about how saving love met him in the darkest year of his life. I thought that for this post I would shake things up a bit. I have been meaning to share with you some personal things, brothers and sisters. Almost twenty-one years ago I sat in my car on my birthday, late August, homeless. I was in the church parking lot of St. Kevin’s parish. The little red booklet, “Handbook for... Read more
Nature in Paul’s writings, or rather the Greek word we translate as nature, probably doesn’t mean what you think it means. Many times I have repeated here on this blog that whenever 21st century people read Paul, spurious familiarity is a constant problem. We think we know Paul and understand him like an old friend, but do we really? Today’s Christians tend to think he’s like an old shoe or glove, fitting nice and comfortably over our Christian theological expectations.... Read more
Even more henotheism is to be found throughout the pages of the New Testament documents. “Really?? Even more talk about henotheism in the Bible?” you ask. Yes. Last time we revisited henotheism found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. And some weeks ago, we covered how monotheism, surprisingly rare in the Bible, slowly developed. At the risk of beating a dead horse, once again I will reiterate that as a Catholic Christian, I am a Trinitarian monotheist. I believe in the Trinity... Read more
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