In this podcast I’ll introduce the idea of the ending of John as a sphragis, and very briefly mention what that might mean for reading John’s gospel, but most of the time will be spent on the much less technical question of why I am convinced that Jesus rose from death and met with the [...]
Browsing Posts in John
This chapter gives what it tells us is an eyewitness account of a Roman execution. Jesus, who has done no real wrong, except offend the religious leaders, and worry the politicians is subjested to the casual brutality of an imperial production-line death. Such a death, of an innocent man, is shocking. But Jesus was not [...]
In this chapter, we get the climax of John’s series of sayings where Jesus echoes the divine “I am” cf. Exodus 3 (E100-17: Exodus 3-4: Getting the holy between your toes!), and we also notice how amid powerful people who seem muddled and out of control, Jesus (the one who seems to be the victim) [...]
Gospels are not biographies, nor are they just collections of sayings, they focus on Jesus’ death and resurrection. Without either event can’t understand Jesus or the gospel. But we also to see and understand that Jesus is God incarnate and that Jesus is risen else his dearth and the disciples turnaround between end of gospels [...]
What’s a little miracle among friends? Yet Jesus seems to avoid performing one that would have saved his friends great pain, only to perform a greater one! And then there’s the ominous clouds gathering that by the end of the chapter foretell the storm to follow. Noticing some detail of how John tells this great [...]
Notice the opening – beginnings are often important – and in this case that importance is highlighted when the theme is repeated, that’s another clue – we repeat things that matter! The man born blind is a great character, do enjoy listening to him “naively” running rings round the clever religious scholars So, it’s all [...]
As a child I loved those old hymns that talked about God as a mystery: Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes… Even if at first I had to ask what some of the words meant actually understanding the words doesn’t end the mystery… John one has the same effect [...]
What is a “Gospel”? Not a collection of sayings, because they tell more stories, but not a biography, they almost miss out most of Jesus’ life! We’ll get an idea what Gospels really are by looking at how each Gospel concludes (Matt 28:17-20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 24:51-53; John 20:30-31). Then, the four gospels begin so [...]
The pericope in John 7:53-8:11 is a fascinating test case in the interaction of text criticism and canon. Both the history of canon, and textual criticism seem dull and unexciting. Yet here they combine into a detective story or a theological conundrum that contributes to making the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy conflict with most [...]
