5 Minute Bible » Reading http://5minutebible.com short | crisp | provocative Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:04:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Being Ideal Readers: 2 putting it all together http://5minutebible.com/being-ideal-readers-2-putting-it-all-together/ http://5minutebible.com/being-ideal-readers-2-putting-it-all-together/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:08:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=4

In part two we get drawn to the hymn in Phil 2 and discover not only what Jesus’ disscension is all about, but also get to understand the talk of us being gifts in Eph 4:11-13 better. (If you have not listened to part 1 do listen to that first.)


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]]> http://5minutebible.com/being-ideal-readers-2-putting-it-all-together/feed/ 0 Being Ideal Readers: 1 in which we discover the importance of a Psalm http://5minutebible.com/being-ideal-readers-1-in-which-we-discover-the-importance-of-a-psalm/ http://5minutebible.com/being-ideal-readers-1-in-which-we-discover-the-importance-of-a-psalm/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:47:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=5
In this podcast we’ll begin to grapple with a complicated idea, but quite simply begin to discover how to become (more) ideal readers. We’ll be looking at Eph 4 , and you will also need a bookmark in Ps 68 . This is a podcast in two parts (otherwise I’d have to change the name to 10 minute Bible, so do listen to tomorrow’s episode after today’s ;)
]]> http://5minutebible.com/being-ideal-readers-1-in-which-we-discover-the-importance-of-a-psalm/feed/ 0 Casuistic and apodictic: part 3: Jesus reads more Scripture http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-3-jesus-reads-more-scripture/ http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-3-jesus-reads-more-scripture/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:10:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=9

We look at how Jesus reads other Bible passages (still in Matthew 5) to begin confirming the hypothesis that to read Scripture with Jesus is to make it so extreme that rules (casuistic law) become goals (apodictic command). Before you get to the next podcast it would be a good idea to listen to “What DOES “fulfil” mean?” and “Jesus as fulfilment of Scripture: Slavery and Spanking”


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]]> http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-3-jesus-reads-more-scripture/feed/ 2 Casuistic and apodictic: part 2: The Jesus Key http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-2-the-jesus-key/ http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-2-the-jesus-key/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:22:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=8
In this I’ll tell you how I think Jesus offers the key to how we should understand the casuistic laws of the Old Testament. It’s simple, but as I’ll go on to show in later ‘casts profound. The clue is found in a passage we’ve looked at before (Matt 5) especially in Matt 5:17-22. (See here for that ‘cast, and here for a whole sermon ;) .
]]> http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-2-the-jesus-key/feed/ 4 Casuistic and apodictic: part 1: What the terms mean http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-1-what-the-terms-mean/ http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-1-what-the-terms-mean/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:01:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=7
The distinction between casuistic and apodictic formulations of “legal” material in the Bible, seems like a prime example of scholarship which has lost touch with the needs of real Bible readers. Not least the abstruse technical language puts people off. Yet this distinction has deeply theological consequences, and Jesus seems to “fulfill” OT law (at least in part) by rephrasing the casuistic as apodictic.

In this first part I’ll begin the boring stuff, and introduce what scholars meant by distinguishing casuistic from apodictic material in the laws of the Old Testament. Part 2 will get to the exciting stuff. (I know this is not the best way to gain your attention, but sometimes work is needed before the fun can start.)


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]]> http://5minutebible.com/casuistic-and-apodictic-part-1-what-the-terms-mean/feed/ 0 Ruth is from Moab, but Boaz is from Bethlehem http://5minutebible.com/ruth-is-from-moab-but-boaz-is-from-bethlehem/ http://5minutebible.com/ruth-is-from-moab-but-boaz-is-from-bethlehem/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:22:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=12

After looking at Direct speech in biblical narratives and especially how the manner of speaking characterises Boaz and Naomi in the book of Ruth and a side glance at the question of whether Ruth’s very arrival at Boaz’ field was chance or not (in Chance or Providence?) I’d like now to suggestthat thinking more deeply about how Ruth is portrayed in chapter 2 can add a sharpness and richness to the story. There is little of direct theological significance to this exercise, but in terms of the sort of reading Scripture as a way of exploring ourselves and our world (that Julia and I have been extoling in Reading Novels, Reading the Bible and Hard Times for Bible Readers respectively) this sort of nuance can be highly significant!

The work referred to in the podcast is: Crapon de Caprona, Pierre. Ruth la Moabite : essai. Genève: Labor et Fides, 1982.

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]]> http://5minutebible.com/ruth-is-from-moab-but-boaz-is-from-bethlehem/feed/ 4 Amos 7:14 presuppositions and rhetoric http://5minutebible.com/amos-714-presuppositions-and-rhetoric/ http://5minutebible.com/amos-714-presuppositions-and-rhetoric/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:13:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=21

Amos 7:14 is a striking problem for interpreters, not least because what Amos is reported as saying to Amaziah seems to contradict what he is reported to be doing in the rest of the book. This makes it fertile ground for us to incorporate either our presuppositions or rhetoric into the text.

(I use the NIV and Grasping God’s Word) as examples in this but do not intend disrespect for the translators or authors, just to suggest they are human too!
Duvall, J. Scott, and J. Daniel Hays. Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible. 2nd ed. Zondervan, 2005 is an excellent book, which we plan to use as a textbook for a course I’ll teach next year :)


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]]> http://5minutebible.com/amos-714-presuppositions-and-rhetoric/feed/ 0 The Perspicuity of Scripture (i) http://5minutebible.com/the-perspicuity-of-scripture-i/ http://5minutebible.com/the-perspicuity-of-scripture-i/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:28:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=26

My tradition (the Baptist part of the Nonconformist or radical Reformation) has stressed the idea that Scripture is perspicuous, that the Bible is easy to understand, and that anyone can understand it – or at least grasp its essentials – without special training or equipment. Yet there are for sure some difficult passages. There are also passages that seem to flat out contradict other parts of the Bible. How can you call a book like that “perspicuous”?

In this post I’ll argue that one key mistake we make is to think of the Bible as if all its parts were also “Bible”, they aren’t they are merely fragments!


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Some other posts dealing with related topics include:

Or you could explore the menu on the right…

]]> http://5minutebible.com/the-perspicuity-of-scripture-i/feed/ 0 Ezra and the foreign wives http://5minutebible.com/ezra-and-the-foreign-wives/ http://5minutebible.com/ezra-and-the-foreign-wives/#comments Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:35:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=32

At the end of the book of Ezra there a horrid account of Ezra and the “officials” gang up to force Judeans who have married foreign women to divorce them and send away them and their children. What do we do with passages like this? And as part of our thinking on this, where DO our values come from? If they don’t come from the Bible, then do we have to use values established elsewhere to “judge” Scripture? Many people today do just that. But I’m a Baptist, Scripture is my final authority in matters of faith and practice, or is it?


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]]> http://5minutebible.com/ezra-and-the-foreign-wives/feed/ 2 What is the Bible? (Part 2) a hologram? http://5minutebible.com/what-is-the-bible-part-2-a-hologram/ http://5minutebible.com/what-is-the-bible-part-2-a-hologram/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:03:00 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=46

Many people think the Bible is like a hologram, any part of which shows the truth. The practice of scholars, preachers and teachers, of citing single verses or lists of verses to demonstrate something, encourages this view. The claim that the Bible is “inerrant” in all its parts seems to seal the idea. Yet in the Bible God itself told us in the Bible that it is false!


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