I’m thinking of three women in the Gospels, and a fourth: The woman with the flow of blood who touched the garment of Jesus and was healed, the Canaanite woman who pleaded with Jesus to heal her daughter, and the woman who anointed Jesus and was attacked for “wasting” money. Jesus replied that she had …
Translating 2 Corinthians 5:19
It hit me the other day, out of the blue, while driving: "For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." I looked it up immediately when I got home. 2 Corinthians 5:19 expresses Saint Paul’s faith in concise and unprecedented simplicity, and yet it is one of the deepest expressions of theology anywhere …
The Water Gospel
John appeared in the desert, as a voice crying out in the wilderness. The world has always been a wilderness, a desert, waiting for someone to speak the word of God. It was true then, it is true now. John was not just a voice, he also baptised people to prepare them for someone greater …
A parable for violent people
Once upon a time there was a teacher, a guru who had many followers. They came from all over to listen, to learn wisdom and enlightenment, and to be liberated from their desires and needs. There were classes and one-on-one apprenticeships. At the end of the students’ teaching the master would send them into the …
The Khora of Salvation
Landscapes were important in defining God's interactions with the people of ancient Israel. And landscapes were important in Jesus' own ministry. Desert, mountain, sea, city and village - places, topoi, where the drama of salvation was played out in the Gospels. Those same landscapes became important in Orthodox tradition, in the writings and meditations of …
Trinitarian Thoughts
I recently had lunch with a friend who has always impressed me with his knowledge of the Bible. Though I must admit - as I have also told him more than once - the Bible for him is mostly the letters of Paul. Nevertheless, with Paul as his anchor and guide he has in the …
The Mystical Power of Prepositions
I was about to start writing a commentary on today's verse, Psalm 139:9-10, when I looked at my weekly email from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks that had arrived yesterday but which I hadn't read yet. You can read it on his website. It is a very eloquent and profoundly theological statement, and in it he quotes …
The Word in Hebrew and Greek
What a towering statement, a highpoint of biblical theology, a pinnacle of human understanding and spirituality. Thousands of years of human search for truth and for God, culminated in this statement by the Gospel writer John. The Word, the Logos was in the beginning - was, which means did not come into being at the …
The Commandments of Theocracy
For many years evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in the United States have been fighting for the posting of the Ten Commandments in public buildings, especially courthouses, city halls and legislatures. I have always understood this as only a political move to assert the mythology of America's Christian origins. I see it as political because there …
The True Icon
Who is Paul referring to in Colossians 1:15? Jesus Christ, of course: ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως. He is the icon - that's the Greek word translated as image - of the invisible God. When we look at Jesus we see God. Not physically, for there is no physicality to God. God …
Ancient Answers 