Month: September 2010
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Does baptism always involve getting wet?
Of course not. Jesus, referring to his upcoming death, said: I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! (Luke 12:50) There’s no evidence that Jesus got wet when he died. Paul said of the Israelites, For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers…
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The Individual and the Community in Paul
It’s been a concern of mine for some time that a number of New Testament scholars such as Tom Wright take an approach to justification in Paul which subordinates individual issues (such as personal sin, guilt and salvation) to communal concerns. The same is true in some scholarly approaches to Paul’s use of the word…
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Righteousness: neither substance nor status
I’ve noticed what I reckon is a false dilemma which has appeared over the meaning of the word “righteousness” (δικαιοσύνη). The false dilemma is pretty widespread, but here’s one example. I’ve been following Mike Bird’s excellent, informative and industriously updated blog for a while. Recently, Mike spoke about the meaning of “righteousness” as if there…
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Finally, a real blog
This site has been through a number of metamorphoses. It began as a place where I posted Greek and Hebrew vocabulary-learning tools. After a while I added a few articles and essays and random thoughts. In the last few years, I’ve been using the site to inform people about my studies and how to support…