When I was first asked to teach a seminary course on the New Testament Gospels (over thirty years ago now!), I was immediately confronted with a difficult decision. The Gospels—and especially the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke—have...
We tend to do strange things with the Gospels. What we have in the New Testament are four stories of Jesus—each distinctive, each with its own unique features. Yes, there is much in common between them, but their distinctive contours and individual...
Some describe the Gospels as accounts of Jesus’s death with really long introductions. Statements like this can downplay the bulk of the Gospels’ narratives, as though Jesus’s death were the only point of importance and everything else is just...
Who is Luke and why is he important? Luke was acquainted with and traveled with the apostle Paul. Not only did Luke travel with Paul outside the land of Israel, he also visited Israel and may have become personally acquainted with members of...
Is Christianity a servile and womanish religion? It is somewhat ironic that today people sometimes dismiss Christianity as too patriarchal, whereas the ancient Romans reviled the churches as too womanish. They accused Christianity of being for the...
Though the Sermon on the Mount gets most of the attention, the Gospel of Luke records another major teaching event regarding the kingdom of God (Luke 6:20–49), known as the Sermon on the Plain. Concerning that sermon, this article will take up the...
Jeffrey Tripp received a doctorate in New Testament and Early Christianity from Loyola University Chicago, and now teaches Math at Rock Valley College. He often incorporates statistical methods into his biblical research, which focuses on the New...
Since commentaries are such a helpful tool for Bible study and preaching, it makes sense to use them. It also makes sense to search for the best! Not only the best complete commentary series, either—the best commentary for each book of the Bible...
Kristen Tetteh talks about what motivates the developers of Faithlife Proclaim (0:10), and Dr. David deSilva discusses Caesar Augustus’ role in Luke’s infancy narrative (4:30).
"As the Lucan Jesus states, the Christ-movement is the 'community amidst a violent world' (“lambs among the wolves,” Luke 10:3) which fights for harmony, peace, and welfare in the context of injustice and oppression."
(A review, by Robert K. MacEwen, of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 18 November 2018) It was standing room only in room 302 of the Denver Convention Center when Dr. Mark Goodacre, Frances Hill Fox...
Mark Goodacre and Alan Garrow are due to meet at this year’s British New Testament Conference at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, 6‐8th September. The issues at the heart of the $1,000 Challenge will be debated in the Synoptic Gospels...
Study the world of Jesus and the Gospels Gain clarity in your reading of the Gospels with a study of the intertestamental period. The decline of the Persian Empire, the rise of Alexander the Great, Israel’s military engagements and religious...
