Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Alternative to a Bulletproof Vest
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Alternative to a Bulletproof Vest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Alternative to a Bulletproof Vest Psalm 140 Not surprisingly (I recently read in a magazine), the best place to buy a bulletproof vest is Bogotá, Colombia, where two students at the University of the Andes noticed that bodyguards didn’t wear their bulletproof vests because th…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Learning from Your Story
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Learning from Your Story
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Learning from Your Story Psalm 105 It’s coming up to Thanksgiving/Advent Sunday, and I’m asking the members of our church to think about the following four questions: 1. “What are you particularly thankful for this year?” 2. “In your Christian faith, what are you finding nouri…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God of Light and God of Darkness
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God of Light and God of Darkness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God of Light and God of Darkness Psalm 104 When my older son got into his midteens, he declared that he was no longer coming to church with his mother and me. Fortunately this was not because he had decided that all church was stupid but that our demure Anglican church wasn’t kee…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The One Day and the Thousand Days
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The One Day and the Thousand Days
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The One Day and the Thousand Days Psalm 84 Each of the churches to which I belonged as a minister in England used to have something like a retreat each year—not a business-focused retreat (the connotation that often attaches to the word retreat in the United States) but a weekend…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Restore Us Again Psalm 85 It is easy for me as a Brit to be resentful of the U.S. media’s critiques of Britain and Europe. “Why do they think it’s their business to criticize when the United States can’t solve its own problems?” I wonder. “Are the British media so critical of the…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Servant Leans on His Master
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Servant Leans on His Master
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Servant Leans on His Master Psalm 86 The media report that two days ago Christians in Egypt undertook a demonstration related to obstacles put in the way of building a church. The demonstration then became an expression of dissatisfaction with military rule in Egypt, so Muslims…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Choose Your Fate
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Choose Your Fate
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Choose Your Fate Psalm 83 Biblical scholar Michael V. Fox has what you might call a typical Jewish background. At the beginning of the twentieth century his grandfather had a narrow escape from pogroms in Russia, when hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands raped, mutilated, a…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion Psalm 87 A few weeks ago, we had a visit from friends in London who told us exciting tales about developments in their parish, where they have a rector who is full of ideas for reaching out into the community and a church that is growing. …
Introduction
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 writ…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Acknowledgments
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Acknowledgments
by SPCK - John Goldingay
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The translation at the beginning of each chapter (and in other biblical quotations) is my own. I have already translated the Psalms in an earlier commentary (Psalms, three volumes, published by Baker Academic in 2006–2008); although I started from scratch for this…
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - Imperial Cult from Tiberius to Nero
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - Imperial Cult from Tiberius to Nero
by SPCK - N T Wright
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: ROME AND THE CHALLENGE OF EMPIRE 4. The Religion of Empire (iii) Imperial Cult from Tiberius to Nero Tiberius was now ‘son of god’: son of the divine Augustus. I have on my desk, as I write this, a denarius of the kind they showed to Jesus not long before hi…
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - Resistance to Empire: the Jews
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - Resistance to Empire: the Jews
by SPCK - N T Wright
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: ROME AND THE CHALLENGE OF EMPIRE 5. Resistance to Empire: the Jews Resistance to Roman rule was natural and widespread, from western Spain to far-off Parthia.299 Some attempts at resistance were startlingly successful, like the German destruction of three le…
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - In the Provinces: Enthusiastic and Diverse
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - In the Provinces: Enthusiastic and Diverse
by SPCK - N T Wright
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: ROME AND THE CHALLENGE OF EMPIRE 4. The Religion of Empire (ii) The Divine Augustus (b) In the Provinces: Enthusiastic and Diverse The altar in Lyons, referred to above, is not the only one in the north-western empire in this period. The altar found at Colog…
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - The Divine Augustus
Paul and the Faithfulness of God - The Divine Augustus
by SPCK - N T Wright
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: ROME AND THE CHALLENGE OF EMPIRE 4. The Religion of Empire (ii) The Divine Augustus (a) In Rome: Informal but Clear The caution which Augustus displayed over any claims to divinity in Rome was not matched either by his keenest followers at home or by his ent…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - No Place for Divorce
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - No Place for Divorce
by BRF - Dick France
No Place for Divorce Divorce—now and then In a society in which divorce has become normal and accepted, Jesus’ robust condemnation of it comes as a shock. But the same was true in his own day. While Jewish authorities debated the grounds for divorce, no-one questioned that divorc…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Did Jesus Really Mean It?
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Did Jesus Really Mean It?
by BRF - Dick France
Did Jesus Really Mean It? As in 7:17 and in chapter 4 a startling pronouncement is followed by the disciples asking Jesus to explain it. Surely he could not really want to sweep away the whole possibility of divorce (which Moses apparently allowed) at one go? So what did he mean?…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Whose is the Kingdom of God?
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Whose is the Kingdom of God?
by BRF - Dick France
Whose is the Kingdom of God? The ‘kingdom of God’ is mentioned twice in these verses, and three times more in verses 23–25. The phrase, as we have seen, means ‘God’s rule’, and what the disciples are being forced to face in this series of incidents are some of the radically diffe…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Hard Sayings