There are many ways of reading the story of the Wayward Son (Luke 15:11-32). In the context of the other two parables Jesus offers, it is fundamentally a story about the joyous response to one who repents and turns to God: “[T]here is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner... Continue Reading →
Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, sixth edition (OUP, 2016), 147. Perhaps the best way to explain Matthew's extensive criticism of the Jewish authorities is to say that his own community continued to experience opposition from non-Christian Jews, especially influential scribes and rabbis of the local synagogue(s), who accused... Continue Reading →
Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, sixth edition (OUP, 2016), 73-74. It is important to recognize that the Pharisees were not the "power players" in Palestine in Jesus' day. That is to say, they appear to have some popular appeal but no real political clout. In some ways... Continue Reading →
L. Michael White, Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite (HarperOne, 2010), 360. The Gospel of John thus represents a social situation of much greater separation of the Christian community from its Jewish neighbors. The theme of rejection of the message about Jesus has not been magnified into a total rejection of Jesus and the one sent from... Continue Reading →
John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Mark, Sacra Pagina (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 33. Intertextually two very strong Old Testament themes merge in the Gospel of Mark. One is that Jesus is the "suffering just one" who is "tested" by God (see Mark 1:12-13), suffers opposition from enemies, and is... Continue Reading →
Marie Noonan Sabin, The Gospel According to Mark, New Collegeville Bible Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2006), 7. Modern Judaism and modern Christianity may have developed along clearly different paths, but readers of the Gospels need to understand that Jesus and his disciples, as well as the evangelists Mark, Matthew, and John (Luke was Gentile), saw themselves... Continue Reading →
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