This is at once one of my favorite stories and one of the most troublesome to me. A Caedmon’s Call song captures the essence of what I love about it: Spit in the clay, when washed away Gave the blind man sight New eyes couldn’t comprehend the sun That by light ended the night ShackledContinue reading “John 9”
Author Archives: Greg
John 8:12–59
The battle between testimony and judgement, revelation and perception, is heating up. John continues with Jesus’s second self-defining “I am” statement in 8:12: “I am the light of the world.” This saying, like the first, is related to life. We have the bread of life and now the light of life, harkening back to 1:4.Continue reading “John 8:12–59”
Review of Things Unseen
Allen, C. Leonard. Things Unseen: Churches of Christ in (and After) the Modern Age. Siloam Springs, AR: Leafwood, 2004. Things Unseen is a tremendous contribution to the ever-broadening body of research dedicated to conscientizing the Churches of Christ through the examination of their formative historical contexts. Additionally, Dr. Allen brings his research to bear powerfullyContinue reading “Review of Things Unseen”
John 7:53–8:11
If you have a study Bible that does its job, you may have noticed brackets around this passage, or at least a footnote. There are only two substantial passages in the Greek NT texts used by modern translations (the ever-stubborn NKJV notwithstanding) that don’t have pretty good attestation as original to their respective books: thisContinue reading “John 7:53–8:11”
John 7:1–52
It is a very twenty-first century idea, but I often wish I could hear the soundtrack that goes with the biblical narrative. For me there is nothing that conveys the feeling of a moment more than music. Sometimes I stumble upon the realization that, though not written in the powerful, sweeping narrative that evokes my emotionsContinue reading “John 7:1–52”
John 6b
I wrote this on Saturday, but sadly I wasn’t able to post it before Easter Sunday morning. This passage is one that I have returned to again and again for a couple of reasons. For many years I have struggled to understand new facets of communion. The supper is one of the deepest wells fromContinue reading “John 6b”
Review of Discovering Our Roots
Allen, C. Leonard and Richard T. Hughes. Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of Churches of Christ. Abilene: ACU Press, 1988. Now over twenty years ago, Leonard Allen and Richard Hughes attempted to confront the ahistorical assumptions of Churches of Christ head-on. In a slender volume boasting only 158 pages of body text, the duo managed toContinue reading “Review of Discovering Our Roots”
John 6a
Chapter 6 is loaded. Two first class signs. A big clue into what is really going on with the mob chasing Jesus cross-country. One of his longest discourses. The first “I am” saying. And a pivotal moment in discipleship. I’ll split it into 6a and 6b. Only a few stories are attested in all fourContinue reading “John 6a”
Review of 2 Articles on Churches of Christ Scholarship
In the short period of time from the fall of 2006 to the first quarter of 2007, both the Stone-Campbell Journal and Restoration Quarterly featured articles on Church of Christ scholarship. Their proximity suggests a significant, conscious concern about the role that Christian scholarship will play in the Churches of Christ during the initial part ofContinue reading “Review of 2 Articles on Churches of Christ Scholarship”
John 5
It is always interesting to compare John with the Synoptics, and in the case of John 5, the comparison and the contrast are important. Even among the minimalists and deconstructionists, there are a handful of things that no one argues about when it comes to the life of Jesus of Nazareth. One of those is thatContinue reading “John 5”
Scripture & Mission 