Jonah, Prophet to the Gentiles
Everybody knows the story of Jonah – how he tried to run away from God, but was swallowed by a great fish, and then went on to preach at Nineveh. But there are actually two main stories going on – how God deals with Jonah and how God deals with Nineveh. Jonah is the 5th of the 12 Minor Prophets (‘minor’ does not mean ‘unimportant’ but ‘small’ compared to the Major Prophets such as Isaiah,…Read More
Philippians: The Epistle of Joy
Paul was in prison, almost certainly in Rome rather than Ephesus or Caesarea, when he wrote Philippians. The year was probably about A.D. 62, and Paul was writing to a church which he had founded on his second missionary journey. Philippi was in Macedonia (northern Greece), and Paul’s relationship with the Philippian Christians was…Read More
Studies on Angels
Roger Ellsworth say that the Bible mentions angels about 273 times. Time magazine had an article on them which describes them as kind and nonjudgmental, which is lovely and convenient. Around 2011-2013 Simone Callahan (formerly Shane Warne’s wife) accepted $80,000 from New Idea to pose in a bikini and say how upset she was about Shane Warne and Liz Hurley, then added: ‘I’m in a very happy place.’…Read More
Studies on the book of Genesis
‘Genesis’ means ‘origin’. Here we have the origins of the world, of life, of mankind, of marriage, and of the entry of sin into a world that God had declared to be ‘very good’. To dismantle Genesis is to dismantle the whole Christian view of the origins….. Read More
Studies on the book of Ruth
Ruth belongs to the 12th or 11th century B.C., and tells of how Naomi went to the land of Moab where her husband and her two sons died. She then returned to Judah with one of her daughters-in-law, Ruth. Ruth as a widow then married Boaz, her kinsman-redeemer, and so became the great grandmother of King David. At one level, it is a charming little story, with a happy ending. Iain Campbell says that it is ‘at heart, a romance’, while Barry Webb calls it ‘a gentle book’. It is both those things, but God’s kindness has a severe side… Read More
Studies on the book of Nehemiah
Nehemiah, while a cupbearer in the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes I, heard that the walls around Jerusalem had been broken down. The king of Persia allowed Nehemiah to journey to Jerusalem in 445 B.C., and serve as governor. The walls were rebuilt (Neh.1-6), and true worship was restored (Neh.8-10), the city was repopulated and there were celebrations at the dedication of the wall (Neh.11-12), and later the renewal itself was renewed (Neh.13)…. Read More
Studies on the book of Esther
Joyce Baldwin: ‘Everyone loves a story’. Like the story of Joseph, and Ruth too, that of Esther is an engrossing account of God’s working through human history using human agencies. Yet God does not appear on centre-stage. In fact, His name is not mentioned at all….. Read More
Studies on the book of Job
The problem of how one God can exist who is sovereign, good, and loving has long been recognised as one of the most difficult ones for the Christian faith to explain…The relationship between God, the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked is an issue which is often raised in Scripture….. Read More
Studies on David
There are 58 references to David in the New Testament, and Christ is described both as the Son of David and the Lord of David….. Read More
Studies on the books of Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi
Jeremiah preached just before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 587 or 586 B.C. This was a terrible disaster with the kings being usurped, the temple being destroyed, and most of the people going into exile. All the promises of God to His people looked like they were going to collapse in utter failure….. Read More
Studies on the book of Matthew
The scholarly consensus now – which may not be worth much – is that Mark was the first Gospel written, and that Matthew abridged it but then added his own material to make it longer. The so-called Griesbach Hypothesis is that Mark used Matthew i.e. Matthew came first. Matthew is the tax collector in 9:9-13, who is called Levi in Mark 2:13-17. It was by no means unusual for a person to have two names e.g. Simon Peter, John Mark. By the second century, Matthew had become the Church’s favourite Gospel…… Read More
Studies on the book of Acts
Acts is unique in that it is the book which fills in the details between the resurrection of Jesus, and the epistles which make up the bulk of the rest of the New Testament. Its author, Luke, was not one of the twelve apostles, but is referred to by Paul as ‘the beloved physician’ (Col.4:14; see too 2 Tim.4:11; Philemon 24). With good reason, the so-called ‘we’ passages in Acts are said to indicate when he was physically with Paul (see Acts 16:10-40; 20:5-15; 21:1-18)……. Read More
Studies on the book of 1 Corinthians
The church at Corinth was a troubled one, living in the midst of a very permissive society. Because the church was so troubled, Paul covers a wide variety of subjects in First Corinthians – divisions (1 Cor.1-4), sexual morality (1 Cor.5-7), asserting one’s rights (1 Cor.8-10), the role of women, together with the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor.11), the use of gifts (1 Cor.12-14), and the resurrection body (1 Cor.15). So there are plenty of issues to deal with! …… Read More
Studies on the book of Galatians
Galatians is to be dated early – about A.D. 48 or 49 – which means that less than twenty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the apostle Paul wrote a very agitated letter to the Galatian churches. Previously, he had been used of God to establish these churches in South Galatia (Acts 13-14). But now he heard that they were seeking to be circumcised (Gal.5:2, 4). Read More
Studies on the book of Hebrews
Donald Guthrie says that Hebrews poses more problems than any other New Testament book – but has he read the book of Revelation? The Council of Trent and the KJV attribute it to Paul, but it is actually anonymous. The author refers to himself, but not by name (13:19, 22-23). Hebrews 2:3 does read like a second-generation work, not one from the hand of Paul. Read More
Studies on the Epistle of James
The epistle of James is not dated. Some date it fairly late, and see it as a correction of those who misunderstood Paul’s emphasis on free grace to be a denial of the need for works. But Paul raises this issue in a number of places e.g. in Galatians 5-6 (probably his earliest epistle) and in Romans 6. Others date the epistle quite early. Any date given is only a guess….. Read More