Category: <span>Bible commentary: general audience</span>

Summary: This article offers a basic introduction to the Gospel of Thomas, which was a document produced probably in the second century. It appears to reflect the values and perspectives of Christians who were committed to ancient “gnostic” ideas. The question of why this gospel was not included in the New Testament connects to larger questions about how early Christians understood Jesus and his significance. Various Christian groups remembered and described Jesus in various ways. The different perspectives among these groups describe different theologies, different understandings of how Jesus reveals God and God’s salvation to us.

Read the full article, and listen to an accompanying podcast, in the “Everything You Wanted to Know about the Bible but Were Afraid to Ask” section of EnterTheBible.

Bible commentary: general audience

Summary: Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard tells us something about the scandalous character of God’s generosity. It also identifies the kinds of people most likely to attract God’s gracious attention. Those people are always with us, and their numbers seem to be getting larger in the current American cultural context, with its persistent unemployment rates and its contempt toward undocumented immigrants.

Read the full article, which is part of the ON Scripture–The Bible project, on The Huffington Post, Day1, and Patheos.

Bible commentary: general audience ON Scripture--The Bible

Summary: This piece reflects on faith and fear in the story of Peter asking Jesus to call him to walk on the stormy Sea of Galilee. How might faith like this exercise itself in the midst of America’s economic woes?

Read the full article, which is part of the ON Scripture–The Bible project, on The Huffington Post, Day1, and Patheos.

Bible commentary: general audience ON Scripture--The Bible

Summary: Pentecost, which falls on the fiftieth and final day of the Easter season, is the day when Christians celebrate the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. The story of Pentecost, as related in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, tells of the Holy Spirit coming to fill and inspire Jesus’ followers. This Spirit makes the community of Jesus’ followers a community of prophets, people who dare to describe what God makes possible for the world.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post.

Bible commentary: general audience The Bible and Christian practices

Summary: During Holy Week, when Christians commemorate the final events of Jesus’ life, they usually read and hear the biblical accounts of Jesus’ appearance before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate held the power to decide Jesus’ fate. As the Gospels tell the story, Pilate does not express sympathy or apathy toward Jesus. How he deals with his helpless prisoner reflects a commitment to mocking Jesus’ identity as a purported king, to disgracing Jesus, and to reasserting Roman authority over the Jewish people.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post.

Bible commentary: general audience The Bible and Christian practices

Summary: Why does the New Testament have so much to say about Jesus returning again? How does the New Testament speak about this promise? Should Christians still expect Jesus to show up one day? This post offers my thoughts on these provocative questions.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post.

 

Bible commentary: general audience Christianity and culture The Bible and Christian practices

Summary: The New Testament contains four gospels. These books describe the same man named Jesus, but they do so in sometimes strikingly different ways. Instead of combining the gospels into a single, composite story, we do well to let each one speak for itself and keep varied perspectives in view.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post.

Bible commentary: general audience

Summary: In the gospels, Jesus tells parables but he rarely explains them for his hearers. Instead, he allows people to enter the unfamiliar and sometimes strange world that the parables describe. These stories and Jesus’ use of them suggest that God promises us a different way of living and being.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post.

Bible commentary: general audience

Summary: This article highlights ways Christian sermons can fall prey to misrepresenting Judaism and voicing anti-Jewish ideas. Among the resources preachers might consult to address this problem is a fine book by Amy-Jill Levine: The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus.

Read the full article on Working Preacher.

Bible commentary: general audience Bible commentary: preachers & teachers Christianity and culture