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Job for Everyone - Eliphaz Rewrites Job's Life Rather Than revise His Own Theology
Job for Everyone - Eliphaz Rewrites Job's Life Rather Than revise His Own Theology
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Eliphaz rewrites Jo’s Life Rather Than Revise His Own Theology Job 22: 1-30 My early years of teaching coincided with a time when many churches were rediscovering the possibility of praying for sick people to be healed and of finding that many were healed. It was an exciting redi…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Filled with Violence
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Filled with Violence
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Filled with Violence Genesis 6: 9-22 At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire undertook a systematic attempt to annihilate the Armenian people in Turkey. One to one and a half million people were killed. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Nazi govern…
Psalms for Everyone - Father of the Fatherless, Protector of the Widow
Psalms for Everyone - Father of the Fatherless, Protector of the Widow
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Father of the fatherless, Protector of the Widow Psalm 68: 1-18 In conversations with people who have inquired about getting married or having children baptized in our church, I have been struck anew by how many are children without fathers or mothers without husbands. I think of…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Display Accurate Empathy I
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Display Accurate Empathy I
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Not to Display Accurate Empathy I 1 Samuel 1:1-8 I don’t very often shout out loud when I read an e-mail, but I did so a few weeks ago when a message came from a friend of mine who had returned to a country in Asia two or three years ago. She and her husband had been longing …
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Evade the Draft
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Evade the Draft
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Not to Evade the Draft 1 Samuel 10: 17- 11: 13 I am sometimes asked why I am so involved with the Old Testament, and I have various answers. I may talk about two great Old Testament teachers I had, one at university and one at seminary. I may refer to the fact that I had lear…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - I Trace the Rainbow through the Rain
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - I Trace the Rainbow through the Rain
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Trace the Rainbow through the Rain Genesis 9: 14- 25 Nineteenth-century Scottish theologian and pastor George Matheson lost his sight when he was a student. That led his fiancée to break off their engagement because she could not face life with a blind man. He never married; hi…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - It Takes a Miracle
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - It Takes a Miracle
by SPCK - John Goldingay
It Takes a Miracle 1 Samuel 1:19b-24 In Joshua, Judges, and Ruth for Everyone I referred to one of my students who spent last year preparing to get married but also developed increasingly intense headaches. A month or so before her wedding date she had an MRI that suggested a bra…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - It's Over Even When It's Not Over
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - It's Over Even When It's Not Over
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Importance of a Game Plan JOSHUA 8: 1-21 Three weeks ago I went to my first American football game. It was also my first experience of tailgating in the warm sunshine and of eating breakfast burritos, which (accompanied by mimosas) were perhaps the highlight of the day. I was…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Praying for Sodom
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Praying for Sodom
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Praying for Sodom Genesis 18: 21-33 Yesterday we prayed in church, as we usually do, for God to grant peace and goodwill among nations. It is tempting to feel cynical about such prayers. Does God listen to them? Do they make a difference? Would it make a difference if we gave …
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Apocalyptic Expectations
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Apocalyptic Expectations
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Apocalyptic Expectations: The Afterlife, Labor Pain and New Birth (1 Thessalonians 4: 13- 5: 28) The recent death of believers in the community prompts Paul to expound on the afterlife. Again he employs the issue of suffering as a marker to distinguish between the Thessalonian co…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Comment: 2 John
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Comment: 2 John
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Comment: 2 John The author of 2 John, who identifies himself as the “elder” (v. 1), uses feminine imagery to speak of the church. The community to which he writes is addressed as “elect lady” (vv. 1, 5), and the community from which the elder writes is identified as “your elect s…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Creating and Ordering the World
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Creating and Ordering the World
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Creating and Ordering the World (Genesis 1-11) Creation is not merely the initial coming into being of the universe and its life forms; it includes also the ordering and continuous unfolding of the world. All of Genesis 1–11 is about the creation of the cosmos, including the more…
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Jonathan
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Jonathan
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
David and Jonathan Jonathan, Saul’s son and king-in-waiting (or so it would seem), is a pivotal character in David’s replacement of Jonathan’s father as king. Immediately after the Goliath incident, we are told that Jonathan felt he was a soul mate of David’s and loved him as muc…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Elisha and the House of Ahab
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Elisha and the House of Ahab
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Elisha and the House of Ahab (2 Kings 1-8) Second Kings begins at the death of Ahab and the accession of his son Ahaziah. The break between 1 and 2 Kings is purely a pragmatic move, to divide the longer narrative into more manageable chunks, so readers should regard the narrative…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Distribution of Powers
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Distribution of Powers
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Distribution of Powers (Deuteronomy 16: 18-18:22) Deuteronomy 16:18–18:22 deals with four national offices that together comprised Israel’s leadership: the judiciary (16:18–20; 17:8–13); kingship (17:14–20); priesthood (18:1–8); and prophecy (18:10–22). The chapters raise three i…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Excursus 4: Echoes of Mercy
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Excursus 4: Echoes of Mercy
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Excursus 4: Echoes of Mercy Through a lens of slavery and segregation, African Americans read Acts 10:34–36 and 17:26 as biblical critiques of oppression. Acts 10 became a rallying cry against slavery from the early part of the nineteenth century…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - End of the Age
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - End of the Age
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
End of the Age (Matthew 24: 1-51) Maternal imagery continues into the fifth discourse. Signs of destruction are “birth pangs” (24:8); the metaphor graphically indicates the inevitability as well as the increasing intensity associated with the end time…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Family Wisdom