Table of Contents i. A Fore-Foreword ii. A Regular Foreword and Table of Contents I. Bibliography and Additional Reading II. Who, When, and Where: The Composition of John …1. The Traditional View …2. Scholarly Views …3. My Theory III. What: The Material of John …1. The Wise Man and the Scribe: Influences on John …….a. The Torah …….b. Judaic Wisdom Literature …….c. Hellenistic Judaism and Greek Philosophy …2. What It Says on the Tin: John’s Relation to the Synoptics …….a.... Read more

i. A Fore-Foreword As a refresher, here’s our plan of the New Testament. We’ve re-structured it on the plan of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh1: the Tanakh is the story of the Temple, and the New Testament is likewise the story of the Church. Below, I’ve used “Evangel”2 as a term for the common genre of the Gospels and Acts, the equivalent in Christianity of what the Torah proper is in Judaism. Similarly, the Nevi’im are recapitulated in the Epistles.... Read more

It Is Written A few years ago, I shifted from writing mainly theological and political commentary to mainly translating New Testament passages. In doing so, I’ve followed the lectionary pretty exclusively. Lately I’ve been thinking about reorienting slightly; I decided to take the plunge with the new liturgical year, MMXXVI (2026), which begins at sunset on 29th November, 2025. What I mean to do now is a straightforward translation of the whole New Testament, start to finish. There are parts... Read more

Crown of Thorns Detail from a 19th-c. reliquary for the putative Crown of Thorns preserved at Notre-Dame, Paris. After the metaphysical grandeur of this solemnity’s Epistle, festooned with majestic titles like The In-All-Things-Preëminent, The Beginning, and The Firstborn of the Dead, we turn to the Gospel—taken, in this case, from Luke. And here we see, not the man haloed by the Shekinah from the peak of Mount Tabor, nor the wonderworker, nor even the rabbi handily scoring off other rabbis... Read more

The Last Solemnity of the Year The final Sunday of the liturgical year, coming up on the 23rd, is the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. In Latin, it is called Sollemnitās Dominī Nostrī Jēsū Christī Ūniversōrum Rēgis, which has got an excellent ring to it. (The new liturgical year, MMXXVI [2026], will begin at sunset on 29th November, civil year 2025.) Central panels of the Ghent Altarpiece (1432), by either Jan or Hubert van Eyck;... Read more

Mount Olivet The title I’ve chosen for this one is a little ironic. See, this post is about the Olivet Discourse, an episode common to all three Synoptics. The “classical” form, the one people usually think of, is Matthew’s, found in chapter 24; he appends a selection of parables about the Last Day (which may have originally been told at other times but are linked thematically to the Olivet Discourse), and these make up chapter 25. Parallel forms of the... Read more

A Foreword Briefly Directing the Gentle Reader Elsewhither I had trouble thinking of a title for this post, and eventually decided that the best choice was to steal one from G. F. Handel. It’s impossible to choose out of such a masterpiece, but if I did have to, I might select the chorus of this title as my favorite part of the Messiah (the text is from Malachi 3:3). If I’m not mistaken, this is the version I grew up... Read more

For All the Saints First of all, I’d like to thank my most recent Patreon supporter, Michael Magee, and my other patrons! Mr. Magee joined this month with an extremely generous donation, and I’m still between jobs at the moment, so that was really encouraging. Also, quick note. This post is another one with some substantial chunks that, while interesting, aren’t essential to understanding the text I’m commenting on from Revelation chapter 7. To save some space, I’ve put these... Read more