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Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Enter Pontius Pilate
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Enter Pontius Pilate
by BRF - Dick France
ENTER PONTIUS PILATE It was one thing for a Jewish court to decide on the death penalty, but quite another to implement it. Under the direct Roman rule which had now been imposed in Judea the right to pronounce the death penalty was reserved to the Roman governor alone. So to ach…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Biography, faith and worship
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Biography, faith and worship
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
Biography, faith and worship This book has attempted a symbolic reading of the narratives of the gospels as biographies of Jesus. Biography is a form of story, and human beings find their identity through stories, which brings a community dimension to interpretation. There is an …
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Trouble Ahead
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - Trouble Ahead
by BRF - Dick France
A DEMONSTRATION in the TEMPLE Mark has carefully interwoven two themes here, as the scene shifts repeatedly between the temple and a fig tree on the Bethany road, thus: Verse 11, temple; verses 12–14, fig tree; verses 15–19, temple; verses 20–25, fig tree; verse 27, temple (which…
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Secret is Unveiled
Mark The People's Bible Commentary - The Secret is Unveiled
by BRF - Dick France
The SECRET is UNVEILED ‘Are you the Messiah?’ The high priest’s question is not so much a change of subject as it may seem. To claim, as Jesus is alleged to have claimed, the right to replace the temple was, in effect, to claim to be the Messiah, since the Messiah was expected to…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - The Powerful Ox
Four Gospels, One Jesus - The Powerful Ox
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
The powerful ox Symbolism and meaning After the human face of God in Matthew’s Teacher of Israel and the bounding lion of Mark, the next symbol for Jesus might seem odd: to us, the ox seems somewhat slow and stupid – and, indeed, some commentators have been known to call Luke, wi…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Wandering Aramean Has Become a Great Nation
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Wandering Aramean Has Become a Great Nation
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Wandering Aramean Has Become a Great Nation Deuteronomy 26: 1-19 Last Friday we had our harvest celebration at the seminary, and a great occasion it was. There was a wide range of food cooked by people of different ethnic backgrounds; there were games for children; there were r…
2 Corinthians - New creation, New Ministry
2 Corinthians - New creation, New Ministry
by SPCK - N T Wright
New Creation, New Ministry 2 CORINTHIANS 5. 16-6.2 When a new world is born, a new way of living goes with it. This is true in so many stages of life. It is true when a couple have their first baby; a whole new chapter has opened in their lives, and nothing will be the same again…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Dance and Slaughter
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Dance and Slaughter
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Dance and Slaughter Psalm 148-149 As a teenager, I did not learn to dance or to shoot a gun for different reasons. I didn’t learn to dance because my church regarded dancing as “worldly”; it wasn’t appropriate to people who were really committed to God. I didn’t learn to shoot be…
John for Everyone part 2 - Your Heart Will Rejoice
John for Everyone part 2 - Your Heart Will Rejoice
by SPCK - N T Wright
Your Hearts Will Rejoice John 16.12-22 How do you talk about things that are not just out of the ordinary but that take you into a whole new world? One way of doing it is through music. That’s why some of the greatest songs are love poems. Faced with the glory and thrill of human…
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Bridegroom and His Friend
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Bridegroom and His Friend
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Bridegroom and His Friend John 3.22-36 Millions of television viewers around the world remember the moment when Lady Diana Spencer got the words wrong in her marriage to Prince Charles. It wasn’t a serious mistake – her husband had rather a lot of names, and she got two of th…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Weeds Explained
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Weeds Explained
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Weeds Explained Matthew 13.36-43 I have on my desk a photograph of a sunset. The sun is going down over one of my favourite countryside scenes, lighting up the sky above and silhouetting, on the skyline, hills I have loved since boyhood. The sun is mostly behin…
Mark The People's Commentary - ‘BLASPHEMY against the HOLY SPIRIT’
Mark The People's Commentary - ‘BLASPHEMY against the HOLY SPIRIT’
by BRF - Dick France
‘BLASPHEMY against the HOLY SPIRIT’ For Satan or against him? In verses 23–27 Jesus offers what might be called a ‘common-sense’ reply. The scribes’ accusation does not make sense. Why should Satan want Jesus to drive out his own demonic forces. That would be to divide and weaken…
Luke for Everyone - Zechariah's Song of Praise
Luke for Everyone - Zechariah's Song of Praise
by SPCK - N T Wright
Zechariah’s Song of Praise Luke 1.57-80 Many people today can’t imagine what life would be like without a television. We are so used to it telling us what to think about all the time that, without it, some people become quite worried, lost in a world of their own unfamiliar thoug…
The Pastoral Letters - Rekindle the Gift!
The Pastoral Letters - Rekindle the Gift!
by SPCK - David Adam
Rekindle the Gift! 2Timothy 1.1-7 There was snow outside, and the living room was cold when I came downstairs. I don’t know why I’d woken up early, but I now shivered as I huddled on the sofa and waited for one of my parents to follow me downstairs. (I can’t have been more than a…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - A Sign of Grace, Commitment and Discipline
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - A Sign of Grace, Commitment and Discipline
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Sign of Grace, Commitment, and Discipline Genesis 17: 9-14 As was once the custom in Britain, my parents had me baptized when I was a baby, even though this was the only involvement they had with the church apart from weddings and funerals. I don’t know exactly what they though…
JOHN: The people's bible commentary - ACCUSED before PILATE