If you open a Bible to the beginning of John chapter 8, you will find a story about the scribes and Pharisees bringing a woman to Jesus—a woman whom they said was caught in the act of adultery. However, depending on what version you are reading, you may also see brackets around this story and/or a footnote indicating that most ancient manuscripts of the Gospel of John do not contain this story. [2 Early in the morning he came again…
A number of years ago I was doing some research online to get ideas for a children’s sermon on the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. Here’s the story from Luke chapter 18 if you’re not familiar with it: 1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people….
Slavery is referenced over and over again throughout the New Testament. This is not surprising, because slavery was a pervasive reality in the ancient world, embedded deeply in the fabric of society. Historians estimate that one quarter to one third of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves. That is the context in which the early church found itself, and therefore it is part of the language early Christians used to express their faith. But we who condemn slavery…
Welcome to the first post of my new blog, The Text in Context. I plan to use this blog to share ideas about how to interpret biblical passages in the 21st century, with attention to their original ancient context as well. Since I have a PhD in New Testament, I will focus most of my attention on New Testament passages, but the Hebrew Bible will certainly come up now and then as well. If you want to know more, you…