In light of a recent blog post by a certain pop-apologist,[1] I thought it might be appropriate to lay out a brief case for seeing the two accounts of Judas Iscariot’s death in the New Testament (Matthew 27:3-10; Acts 1:18-19) as contradictory. To begin with, let’s consider each passage in turn and then compare them... Continue Reading →
"What would lead people to make all this stuff up – all of it – from scratch? Not just embroidering or adding to existing stories about an existing person, but inventing all of the above, including the bits that clearly work against their purposes? So far, I have not heard an adequate explanation for this.... Continue Reading →
In the Gospel of Mark, the first four disciples that Jesus calls to follow him (akoloutheō) are Simon, Andrew, James, and John (Mark 1:16-20). All four of those men were fishing on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus walked by and all four of them dropped their nets to follow him. Both the Gospel of... Continue Reading →
Over at his blog Theology in Motion, Carey Bryant posted a piece entitled "The Gospel of John as an Eyewitness Account," summarizing why he thinks the Johannine Gospel is an eyewitness account to the life of Jesus. He makes four main arguments: The author was familiar with Jewish culture. The author seems to identify himself as... Continue Reading →
In the last "Musings on Mark" we began taking a closer look at Mark 6:45-52. Today we finish up looking at that passage. "He Intended to Pass Them By" We left off in the last post with Jesus seeing the struggle of the disciples as they tried to row "against an adverse wind" (Mark 6:48).... Continue Reading →
Kyle Keefer, The New Testament as Literature: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2008), 25-26. The characterization of the disciples in Mark's gospel is shocking in its condescension; the disciples are complete and utter dullards. One scene in particular makes this point. Mark narrates two stories of Jesus' miraculously feeding a crowd of thousands. The first, in Mark... Continue Reading →
Michael J. Kok, The Gospel on the Margins: The Reception of Mark in the Second Century (Fortpress Press, 2015), 158-159. The John Mark of the book of Acts is a composite creation, the result of harmonizing the earlier accounts of Mark as a Pauline coworker and the later association of Mark with Peter. Like 1 Peter... Continue Reading →
In addition to my regular Bible reading schedule and my verse-by-verse translating of the Gospel of Mark, I've also been reading a Markan pericope a day each weekday. Today I was in Mark 14:43-52 and something struck me as really odd. Jesus is in Gethsemane (14:32-42) with a few of his sleepy disciples when Judas... Continue Reading →
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