N.T. Wright explains the world of the New Testament in new book

From RNS-

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has spent most of his life teaching people how to study the New Testament.

And the most important thing, he says, is getting the context right.

Without that context, it’s “fatally easy for people to distort bits of Christianity,’” Wright said.

“If we ignore the context, we can make the New Testament stand on its hind legs and dance around the room and play to our tunes — and that that has always been the case, no doubt,” he told Religion News Service in a recent interview. “But the correction is always to go back to, ‘What was the context?’”Wright, a retired Anglican bishop and now chair of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, is author more than 80 popular and academic books about Christianity and the Bible. The latest — co-authored with fellow scholar Michael F. Bird — is “The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians.”

More here-

https://pres-outlook.org/2019/11/n-t-wright-explains-the-world-of-the-new-testament-in-new-book/

The Washington Post Discovers The Magnificat

From Patheos-

he Washington Post—and Evangelicals—just discovered the Magnificat. Apparently this portion of scripture is unknown to a goodly portion of American Christians. On one hand this surprises me because it is in the Bible, but on the other hand doesn’t because of all those recent polls illuminating the amazing fact that hefty numbers of “evangelicals” are not versed in the most basic elements of Christian doctrine. If ordinary “evangelicals” think that Jesus is a spirit emanation and that you can work your way to heaven, then the Magnificat is probably not something they are any more used to than the Lord’s Prayer.

Anyway, I’m Anglican and the Magnificat has always been my favorite, just like the whole Bible. And not only should everyone read it, but it should be so often sung that everyone knows it by heart. But, like the Bible, it is a dangerous song. And if you think that it belongs to you, or that you can sing it on behalf of others, or that Mary—as the Wapo article intimates—is a revolutionary, well, then you are just reading the prayer and haven’t heard the gospel.

More here-

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/preventingrace/2018/12/23/the-washington-post-discovers-the-magnificat/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=share_bar&fbclid=IwAR2EK_r5iB6tIYnxjKZ9CtLT1ZXrtYsSrY8dioXktteQmoOdDy8VYOVTVPc#lKp7l5EX8F9tkscq.01

Did the Syrophoenician woman teach Jesus to be Jesus?

From Psephizo-

The episode of Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7.24–30 often brings readers up short, containing as it does what appears to be a rather shocking insult. Jesus is seeking to withdraw from public attention, needing some time for rest and recuperation, but (as characteristic of his portayal in Mark’s gospel) he is unable to keep his presence secret. A woman approaches him to ask for deliverance for her daughter and (Mark having emphasised her pagan gentile credentials), Jesus appears to insult her with a racial slur by calling her a ‘dog’. Yet her stubborn faith persists, and her clever response to Jesus’ ‘insult’ persuades him to act, so her daughter is delivered and healed.

There seems to be quite a strong trend in ‘progressive’ readings of this text to draw a particular point from this episode: Jesus was in fact fallible and racist; the woman taught him something by her response; he changed and moved on from his narrow, exclusive view; and so we should be willing to do the same. Here is one example, which sees mainstream readings of this texts as ‘workarounds’ which are avoiding the awkward reality that we find in the text:

More here-

https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/did-the-syrophoenician-woman-teach-jesus-to-be-jesus/

The Biggest Myths about Mary Magdalene

From The Daily Beast-

At least once a week someone emails me to tell me that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. Sometimes, they can trace their own family tree back to history’s most famous non-couple. Best publicized by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code the story that Mary M. and Jesus were married and had children is just one of a number of myths about Mary that simply refuses to die. 

She wasn’t married to Jesus

If Jesus was married, that’s a fact that would have some serious theological implications. For the conspiracy theorist among us, the possibility that he was married and had children means that there might be a line of special, semi-divine human beings wandering around. For the Catholic Church, the ramifications are even more pronounced. If Jesus was married and had children should not Catholic priests also be allowed to marry and have children? It would set an important precedent for Pope Francis’ recent statements about older married men being able to become priests. 

Let’s be very clear, though, none of the texts in the New Testament (which, more importantly, also happen to be the earliest texts written about him) refer to Jesus being married to anyone, much less Mary Magdalene. 

More here-

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-biggest-myths-about-mary-magdalene

Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute but a devoted disciple who supported Jesus financially and spiritually, scholars say

From The Independent-

If there’s a feminist figure from the Bible for the #MeToo era, it could very well be Mary Magdalene.

The major character in the life of Jesus was long maligned in the West and portrayed as a reformed former prostitute. But scholars have adopted a different approach more recently, viewing her as a strong, independent woman who supported Jesus financially and spiritually.

The New Testament tells how Jesus cast demons out of her. She then accompanied Jesus in his ministry around the Galilee, before witnessing his crucifixion, burial and resurrection in Jerusalem, which is being commemorated by Christians this week and next. The Roman Catholic Church and Western Christian churches observe Easter on Sunday, Eastern Orthodox Christians a week later. 

More here-

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mary-magdalene-feminism-metoo-jesus-disciples-apostle-christianity-judaism-pope-francis-vatican-a8281731.html

Jacob and the angel, as told by the angel

From Christian Century-

In the beginning, when I was first making appearances to mortals, most of them died before I could speak the first word of truth. Just from the sight of me—they fell right over. Great burly men and women too, not like the kind you see nowadays. I mean, real antediluvian hulks with chests the size of wine barrels and legs like cedar trunks. Their consciences would seize right up; they were that certain I’d come to find them out. And they’d give up the ghost—practically flung the ghost right at me—rather than listen to a word of what I had to say.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and the distribution and installation of wisdom is the task with which all powers and principalities have been charged, not excepting myself. Fear being the operative word, and not panic, which is why most of us have learned to start each incident log with a command like “Fear not,” or “Dread not,” or “Be thou not dismayed,” or some other variation thereof; most people are full of the beginning of wisdom already, and appearing before them without some form of reassurance is liable to result in total system overload, followed shortly by shutdown.

More here-

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/first-person/jacob-and-angel-told-by-angel

The TL;DR Edition Of All 66 Books Of The Bible

A little humor to start the day-

Luckily for you, we at The Babylon Bee have studied our official company Scofield Reference Bible for the past 80 years in order to distill each of the 66 books down to a bite-sized snippet even you can understand. We reduced every book to a single, memorable line, so you don’t have to read a word of it for yourself. Nice!

Forget about reading through the Bible in a year—now you can read through the Bible in about five minutes!

Genesis – God makes everything and it’s really good for about 3.2 seconds.

Exodus – YAHWEH VS. RA FIGHT NIGHT ONLY ON PAY-PER-VIEW SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!

Leviticus – STOP DOING GROSS STUFF.

More here-

http://babylonbee.com/news/tldr-edition-66-books-bible/

Greenville First Baptist Senior Pastor Jim Dant says the Bible can’t be credibly used as an argument against same-sex relationships

From South Carolina-

The Bible tells me so.

Those who are against homosexuality often quote Bible verses — Leviticus 18:22, Deuteronomy 22:5, and Genesis 18-19, among others — to “prove” that it is a sin. But Dr. Jim Dant, senior minister at Greenville First Baptist Church, says there is no valid, Christian, biblical argument against same-sex relationships between consenting adults.

“People may argue against homosexuality and LGBTQ identities, relationships, and rights on political, economic, or personal morals, but the Bible cannot credibly be used as a weapon in these fights,” he said. “The minute you bring the Bible into it, there’s no valid argument.”

The impetus for Dant’s recently released book, “This I Know: A Simple Biblical Defense for LGBTQ Christians,” was that some members of Greenville First Baptist Church, which generated headlines in 2015 for how it addressed the LGBTQ community within its walls, asked for a simple-to-understand defense against those Bible verses that had become weapons against them.

More here-

https://greenvillejournal.com/2018/02/08/greenville-first-baptist-senior-pastor-jim-dant-says-bible-cant-credibly-used-argument-sex-relationships/

What Happens if You Package the Bible as a Novel Instead of a Textbook?

From Slate-

I’ve owned eight or 10 Bibles over the course of my life, including a children’s illustrated New International Version, a handful of small gilt-edged New Testaments, a “life application” Bible packaged for 1990s teenagers, and a hefty tome emblazoned with my name. I’m not an unusually prodigious collector. Eighty-eight percent of American households own at least one Bible, and many own more. I happen to be writing this in a room at my in-laws’ house that holds five versions of the Bible, a small portion of their stash—which includes a pocket-sized New Testament, a hardcover “amplified” version, two leather-bound New King James translations, and a brightly covered Nuevo Testamento.

These Bibles vary in translation, publisher, language, intended audience, and aesthetics, but they have one thing in common: They are reference books. The text has been broken down into chapters and verses, and they contain explanatory footnotes and cross-references to related passages. In almost all of them, justified blocks of text run down each tissue-thin page in two columns, and in some of them, each sentence is its own paragraph. Some contain maps, long introductions to each book, sidebars, and copious endnotes. They are meant to be sampled or studied like a textbook, not read like a novel.

More here-

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/01/why-it-could-be-revolutionary-to-package-the-bible-as-a-novel-instead-of-a-textbook.html

Oldest complete Latin ​​Bible set to return to UK after 1,302 years

From The Guardian-

One of the greatest of all Anglo-Saxon treasures, the oldest complete Latin Bible in existence, is returning to the UK for the first time in 1,302 years.

The Codex Amiatinus is a beautiful and giant Bible produced in Northumbria by pioneering monks in 716 which, on its completion, was taken to Italy as a gift for Pope Gregory II.

On Thursday, the British Library announced it had secured its loan from the Laurentian library in Florence for a landmark exhibition in 2018 on the history, art, literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England.

“It is the earliest surviving complete Bible in Latin,” said Claire Breay, the library’s head of medieval manuscripts. “It has never been back to Britain in 1,302 years but it is coming back for this exhibition. It is very exciting.”

More here-

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/30/oldest-complete-latin-bible-set-to-return-to-uk-after-1302-years

Medieval-style Bible is a marvel at Garden City’s Episcopal cathedral

From Long Island-

The Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City has a copy of a most special Bible in its keeping — one that took 15 years to make, measures 2 feet by 3 feet, and was produced in the way that Catholic monks made Bibles in medieval times, drawn painstakingly by hand.

One volume of the illuminated Bible is on loan for a year from the Benedictine monks at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, who came up with the idea of creating the first medieval-style Bible of this size in 500 years, since the invention of the printing press.

“There’s a lot of excitement” over the copy of The Saint John’s Bible, which arrived at the cathedral on Nov. 1, All Saints Day, said the Very Rev. Michael Sniffen, dean of the cathedral, which is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. “When people hear the story and the amount of work that it took to create a Bible, they’re just blown away.”

More here-

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/the-saint-johns-bible-calligraphy-cathedral-1.15021472

The Babel story is about the dangers of uniformity

From Christian Century-

The Tower of Babel story is among the best known and most frequently cited stories in the Torah. And yet most of the conventional interpretations of the narrative are, I think, mistaken.

Genesis 11 is not a simple morality tale about a human attempt to storm the heavens and displace God. Nor, conversely, is it a primitive allegory about an insecure deity who is so threatened by human achievement that God needs to wreak havoc on the best-laid human plans. The narrative is also not placed where it is in the Torah in order to explain the vast multiplicity of human languages. Nor is it a lament about some lost primeval unity. The story of Babel is, I would suggest, about something else: the importance of individuals and the horrors of totalitarianism.

The fact that the nine verses that make up the narrative are often de­scribed as the “Tower of Babel” story is misleading, since the crime of the builders at Babel is not their desire to build a tower. “A tower with its top in the sky” (Gen. 11:4) is not, in and of itself, any kind of assault on God’s authority. The term is, rather, simply a biblical Hebrew expression for a very tall building, what we would similarly call a “skyscraper”—it does not actually scrape the sky; it is just extremely tall.

More here-

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/the-babel-story-is-about-dangers-uniformity

Humor in the Bible

From Church Life-

We rightly approach Scripture with reverence and a certain solemn spiritual hunger. Therefore, we do not often think of these inspired texts as having any sort of humor or laughter in them. This is especially true if we are Fundamentalists, or, take every word of the Bible literally.

Nonetheless, there are a number of Scripture passages that make me pause every time I hear or read them. These are in the Bible itself. They are not just the result of insufficient preparation on the part of the lector in regard to a particular text. One passage in particular comes to mind as an example of the latter: Luke 2:16.  The text may say, “The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger,” but the lector almost always proclaims instead that they “found Mary and Joseph and the baby, lying in the manger.” I will leave to your imagination how the “flaming brazier” of Genesis 15:17 comes across from some lectors.

What I am considering is something rather different. The Bible has a special status as the Word of God, but it is also quite simply literature and needs to be considered, at least at times, in that light if we wish to properly understand the manner in which each author wrote. Reflect on the fact that Shakespeare himself would include humor even in tragedies like Hamlet or Macbeth, and you will not be surprised to raise an eyebrow (or the corners of your lips) when you encounter certain biblical passages.

More here-

http://churchlife.nd.edu/2017/11/10/humor-in-the-bible/

“This world is ruled by violence”

From Internet Monk-

Democracy don’t rule the world
You’d better get that in your head
This world is ruled by violence
But I guess that’s better left unsaid

• Bob Dylan

• • •
The Bible has a lot more to say about violence and its devastating effects upon the human race than it does about other sins, such as sexual misbehavior. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence,” the Flood story begins. The one story in our faith that talks about God’s judgment in universal terms blames it on violence. Many Jews have read the murderous story of Cain and Abel, rather than that of Adam and Eve as the account of humankind’s original sin. It’s hard to find a page in the Hebrew prophets that doesn’t decry violence vividly.

More here-

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/77379

Study: Women Find Men Carrying Leather-Bound ESV More Attractive

A little humor to start the day-

A new study performed by LifeWay Research found that Christian women find men who are carrying a high-quality, leather-bound ESV Bible significantly more attractive than men who carry other versions of the Scriptures, or no Bible at all.

When asked to describe a picture of a man carrying a large, expensive English Standard Version, 91% of female respondents used terms like “attractive,” “manly,” and “come to mama,” while the same man without an ESV was described using phrases like “boring,” “total dork,” “completely unattractive,” and “hard pass.”

More here-

http://babylonbee.com/news/study-women-find-men-carrying-leather-bound-esv-attractive/

The Holy Bible, according to Trump

From The Washington Post-

Seems Roy Moore, the Ten Commandments Judge and very likely the next U.S. senator from the state of Alabama, has been playing a bit fast and loose with the whole thou-shalt-not-bear-false-witness thing.

My Post colleagues Shawn Boburg and Robert O’Harrow Jr. reported this week that Moore, who claimed he did not take a “regular salary” from the Christian-values charity he founded, in fact received $180,000 a year — more than $1 million from 2007 to 2012 — in compensation, much of which the charity did not disclose.

Still, Moore is in better shape, in terms of biblical injunctions, than Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), who is giving up his seat in Congress after admitting to an adulterous affair with a woman half his age. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the married congressman, a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, appeared to have asked his mistress to have an abortion.

More here-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-holy-bible-according-to-trump/2017/10/13/53b37752-b01d-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.86789a89f10d

The Truth and Fiction of Adam and Eve

From The New York Times-

Stephen Greenblatt follows Adam and Eve through a long arc of Western history. He begins at the beginning, with paleoanthropology, then moves on to the Babylonian epics, which influenced the early chapters of Genesis, and on to a sketch of the life of St. Augustine. From there, he arrives at the Renaissance and its depictions of the first and perfect man and woman, then Milton, of course, the age of discovery and the rationalist rejection of Adamic creation, which was a rejection as well of the belief that, as St. Augustine said, “God willed to create all men out of one, in order that they might be held in their society not only by likeness of kind, but also by bond of kindred.” Europeans found that the great world teemed with people toward whom they felt little likeness and less kindred. Then Darwin emerged, upending everything all over again. And Greenblatt finally lands in his last pages at a fairly disheartening account of mating among the chimpanzees. This is the march of progress, tinged with melancholy, as always.

More here-

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/books/review/rise-and-fall-of-adam-and-eve-stephen-greenblatt.html?smid=fb-share

Redeeming the Bible From American Evangelicalism

From Patheos-

We go to an Anglican church now. Every Sunday, worship is infused with the words of the Bible, with singing, with teaching and listening.

And lately, it’s become apparent to me that I’ve really been avoiding the Bible, this book that stood at the front of everything my entire childhood.

In college and in the years following, the images given to me of God, of Jesus, of the Bible, crumbled along with the patriarchal lens through which I saw them.

And so, I’ve avoided the words of the Bible.

I’ve been confused by them.

Often, I no longer trust them, because they leave the aftertaste of patriarchy.

They leave the aftertaste of a colonized faith, one that I grew up in and am now slowly trying to disconnect from. I was the worship leader for the FCA. I was at every True Love Waits Rally, every retreat.

Read more at

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/kaitlinbcurtice/2017/10/04/redeeming-bible-american-evangelicalism/#e5ViBVrcobMaucWA.99

I’m a Christian, but I’m Not Interested in Living “Biblically”

From Patheos-

For those of us who were raised in Christianity, growing up we were often taught the importance of developing a “biblical” worldview and living “biblically.” Even as our childhoods come to a close, we’re often told that we should go to specific Christian schools or colleges so that we can prepare for the workforce while also solidifying that “biblical” world view we’re supposed to carry with us through life.

I see and hear the term every day in a variety of contexts.

“Biblical.”

It’s as if the term “biblical” is some code-word that signifies rightness, correctness, or purity, in a way that nothing else can. It’s as if there is no higher authority, that the “name above all names” to distinguish right from wrong, is “biblical.”

Read more at

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/formerlyfundie/im-a-christian-but-im-not-interested-in-having-a-biblical-worldview/#Zg92llAPh2rZ3BOs.99

Survey finds most people who call themselves Anglican never read the Bible

From Premier-

Most people who call themselves Church of England Christians never read the Bible. That is one of the findings of a survey commissioned by the Church of England to help revamp its evangelism efforts.

Figures show that 60 per cent of self-declared followers of the Church admit they never read the Bible. Meanwhile, 36 per cent say they never attend church and one in three says they never pray.

The figures from ComRes survey show that many who claim to be Christian do not actually take part in many of the activities normally associated with the faith.

While 51 per cent of those who took part in the survey said they were Christians, only six per cent of those polled read the Bible, prayed and attended church at least once a week. Those who said they were followers of the Church of England were the least observant.

Rachel Jordan, the Church's national mission and evangelism adviser told Premier the survey has given the Church a real sense of the scale of the task ahead.


More here

https://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Survey-finds-most-people-who-call-themselves-Anglican-never-read-the-Bible