Exegetical Notes
Broken Covenant Restored (Lent 5B/Jer. 31:31-34)
In a previous post I mentioned that one problem we have with understanding forgiveness is that we tend to make excuses and to blame others rather than feel guilt on our own account. Everything is OK, and we’re “not too bad.” We also lose the impact of some of the richest texts about salvtion, because [...]
John 3 and the Jesus Message (Lent 4B/John 3:14-21
Darrel Bock (430-433) combines John 3:1-21 into one section, titled “What Do the Signs Show? Jesus and Nicodemus”. John’s next account is of an evening visit by a leader of Judaism. Here, outside the tensions of a public confrontation, in the quiet of table talk, the two eras meet, one old and the other emerging. [...]
The Early Cleansing (John 2:13-25/Lent 3B)
As I have mentioned before, I like to check out gospel passages with Darrell Bock’s notes in Jesus According to Scripture in order to see the best possible options for reconciling the various stories. In this case, I don’t find the results very promising. The only possible way to reconcile the synoptic tradition, with a [...]
Sources and Repetition (Genesis 17/Lent2B)
In dealing with source criticism there are two broad questions for the Biblical exegete, as opposed to the actual source critic. The first is whether there are identifiable sources at all, or at least in any substantial sense, and the second is how important these sources are for exegesis. Though I’m not going to go [...]
Mark – The Mission of John the Baptist
The following audio comes from a radio program I recorded in 2003. The scripture is Mark 1:1-8, especially Mark 1:4. {audio}mark_1.mp3{/audio}