John Goldingay

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Where Are You?

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Where Are You? Genesis 3: 4-13 “I can resist everything except temptation.” I am writing on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States. It’s the greatest shopping day of the year, popularly assumed to be called by that name because it’s when stores hope to get …

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Creation Asserts Itself

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Creation Asserts Itself Genesis 3: 1-3 A talking snake? But this is a parable, remember. In Julia Bolden’s version of the story, the tempter is a parrot, and God’s ban concerns television; Adam and Eve are not to watch the good and- bad-knowledge channel. A parrot flies in throug…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - This Is It!

by SPCK - John Goldingay

This Is It! Genesis 2: 21-25 I once took part in a workshop where students produced dramatic, modern versions of stories in Genesis. The one I most remember was a retelling of Genesis 1 by Julia Bolden. There were a number of neat aspects to the story. It is set in a house instea…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Human Beings as Gardeners

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Human Beings as Gardeners Genesis 2: 8-14 Where I grew up as a toddler in Birmingham, England, my father grew potatoes. Then, when I was at junior school we had a plum tree, and when I was at secondary school we had two apple trees. When I taught at seminary in Nottingham, I grew…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - To Put It Another Way

by SPCK - John Goldingay

To Put It Another Way… Genesis 2: 4b-7 There is a children’s story about Pinocchio, a wooden doll carved from a piece of pine who longs to become a real boy. After a series of adventures that come to a climax with his making a great sacrifice, this eventually happens, and everyon…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Creation Story as a Historical Parable

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Creation Story as a Historical Parable Genesis 2: 4a Once when our sons were young we were driving through northern France, across a plain with a range of mountains in the background. In the back seat our younger son (who was about twelve) started giving a lecture on how thes…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Saturday

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Saturday Genesis 1: 31- 2: 3 At the end of a week, many people wish they could look back over the week’s work and smile in satisfaction because they have a sense of a worthwhile job completed. But instead, they simply think with relief, “Thank God it’s Friday!” or wish, as Mark K…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Afternoon

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Friday Afternoon Genesis 1: 27-30 My wife and I have friends who used to keep an animal or two, and when we stayed with them for the weekend we were introduced to a calf called Jeremy. It was at Sunday lunch that we met him. They brought Jeremy up, had him slaughtered and cut up,…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Lunchtime

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Friday Lunchtime Genesis 1: 26 We human beings are pretty self-centered creatures. For their Scripture reading, some churches (like mine) use a lectionary, a set list of passages for reading each Sunday, and when we read Genesis 1, we are inclined to jump from the opening verse (…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Thursday, Friday Morning

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Thursday, Friday Morning Genesis 1:20-25 A whole corner building in the downtown area of our city was recently reconstructed and remodeled, and to my astonishment what opened there was a store that just sells boxes. A friend of ours got a job there and told us that she was also s…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Genesis 1:6-19 At the weekend my wife and I like to have lunch by the ocean, and while doing so we watch the surf hurling itself at the beach. No matter how hard giant waves batter the beach, they will never climb the rocks to where we sit, still less t…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Sunday

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Sunday Genesis 1:2-5 I have heard one or two people describe how they make records, and I have come to realize that there are two different approaches. Some people have worked it all out systematically before they go anywhere near a recording studio. They know how many songs they…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - In the Beginning

by SPCK - John Goldingay

In the Beginning Genesis 1: 1 Our son and daughter-in-law were showing us photographs of our two grandchildren. In one of them, the two children were sitting in the back of the car looking very solemn. “I think we had just had the birds-and-the-bees talk,” our son explained. Wher…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Introduction

by SPCK - John Goldingay

INTRODUCTION As far as Jesus and the New Testament writers were concerned, the Jewish Scriptures that Christians call the “Old Testament” were the Scriptures. In saying that, I cut corners a bit, as the New Testament never gives us a list of these Scriptures, but the body of Scri…

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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Acknowledgments

by SPCK - John Goldingay

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The translation at the beginning of each chapter is my own. I have tried to stick closer to the Hebrew than modern translations often do when they are designed for reading in church, so you can see more precisely what the text says. Although I prefer to use gender…

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1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - GLOSSARY

by SPCK - John Goldingay

GLOSSARY aide A supernatural agent through whom God appears and works in the world. Standard English translations call them “angels,” but this rather suggests ethereal figures with wings, wearing diaphanous white dresses. Aides are humanlike figures; hence it is possible to give …

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1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Will Not Offer Worship That Costs Me Nothing

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I Will Not Offer Worship That Costs Me Nothing 2 Samuel 24: 16b- 25 As we left a concert last night, one of my friends commented that he always emerges from live music with renewed energy. I am the same. It reminded me of how I felt after a terrific, animated, dynamic worship ser…

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1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Would Rather Fall into God's Hands than into Human Hands

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I Would Rather Fall into God’s Hands than into Human Hands 2 Samuel 24: 1- 16a By a nice coincidence, it’s census month in the United States. Many an advertisement is urging us to make sure we fill in forms; even the announcements in church repeat the exhortation, and the governm…

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