Welcome to Sunday School! It’s been a minute, but class is officially back in session. This week we continue our overview of the books of the New Testament (NT) with the book of Hebrews. To be honest I could’ve gone with James here, because I don’t think there’s enough compelling evidence to dictate a specific order. So, Hebrews here we come Let’s begin with what Hebrews actually is. It’s not a letter. Paul’s letters (who isn’t the author, more on that in a bit) give us a great example of how letters were composed in antiquity. For example, here is the beginning of 1 Corinthians: Paul, called ..read more

Welcome to Sunday School! Class is officially in session. This week we come to Colossians, the first of the “disputed letters,’ which were written in Paul’s name but likely not from the historical Paul. Before we dive in, a brief refresher might be helpful. Of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul in the New Testament (NT), seven are considered by scholars to be authentically from the historical Paul. Those seven are 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Romans, and Philippians. Of the remaining six, three are "disputed,” meaning that a majority of scholars believe these ..read more

Welcome back to Sunday School! Class is officially in session. This week we will continue our chronological journey through the New Testament (NT) documents. This week I had to choose between two texts, because both were likely written in the 80s: Colossians and Matthew. Matthew won out. So, let’s get started. Since the second century the Gospel of Matthew has been considered the most popular and well-known Gospel. While Mark was written first, we encounter Matthew first in the order of the canon. That is possibly due to the widespread preference for Matthew’s account of Jesus’s story. Like Ma ..read more

Welcome back to Sunday School! Class is officially in session. This week we’re continuing our deep dive on the chronology, the who wrote what when, of the New Testament (NT). Last week we looked at the first witness, the oldest documents found within the NT, the seven authentic letters of the historical Paul. To catch up click here. In the development of the NT the Gospel according to Mark comes next. While it comes second in the canonical order, following Matthew, an overwhelming majority of scholars are convinced of Markan priority (meaning Mark was written first). This idea began to be di ..read more

Welcome to Sunday School! This new weekly feature will cover topics centered on the Bible, theology, and scholarship that are usually never talked about in most churches. Over the past twenty plus years I have received a common response when I have talked about basic biblical scholarship: Why am I just now hearing about this? It’s a great question. Many people would like to embrace a more expansive view of God and humans, but feel like faithfulness to God and the Bible keeps them from it. They have a capacity for compassion that exceeds the understandings of God they’ve inherited. That’s why i ..read more

Are there contradictions in the Bible? Our answer to that question probably rests on what we think the Bible is. Many of us, me included, were taught from a young age that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God. That being the case, the Bible was thought to be completely free from error or mistake. If while reading the Bible we discover conflicting accounts of events or ideas the problem isn’t the Bible, we were taught. In that case the problem lies with us, the reader/interpreter. Sound familiar? Then many of us did the very thing we were taught to do: We read the Bible and took ..read more

This week I’m continuing a series of posts that respond to the question, “Was Jesus Divine?” In the first two posts I explored the title “Son of God” through first century Jewish and Roman lenses. Click here to read parts one and two. Today I want to ask the question, “When did Jesus become the Son of God?” It seems like a no brainer, right? Jesus was always the Son of God, the preexistent Second Person of the Trinity that, two thousand years ago, took on a body and walked among us. You might even be thinking about the language of the Nicene Creed which says, I believe in one Lord Jesus Chris ..read more

Hello friends! This week I am taking a break from the “Was Jesus Divine” series and sharing an edited and expanded post from 2021. Today is Ascension Day on the Christian calendar, which is a concept I find fascinating, especially if we can ask the most important question, “What does it mean?” To catch up on the “Was Jesus Divine?” series click here to read parts one and two. One last thing before the post. My book tour launches this weekend in the Phoenix area! I’ll be speaking at The Well on Sunday morning at 10am local time in Gilbert. If you’re in the area I’d love to say hi! In the meanti ..read more

Last week I began a series that responds to the question, “Was Jesus the divine Son of God or just a human being?” The first post focused on the understanding of the title “Son of God” through the lens of Judaism. What we discovered is that, in the text and tradition, “Son of God” wasn’t a reference to biology but function. It wasn’t a claim that, if we somehow could test Jesus’s DNA that the result would come back as “God is the father” (this scenario is obviously playing out on the Maury Povich show). The application of the title “Son of God” meant that the person attached to it was the righ ..read more

Hello friends! This week’s question comes from Tiffany, and she asks: What is the significance of Jesus being born of a virgin? Was he?  Was he actually related to John the Baptist? Check out the video for my response. In the video I mention my book tour, which is called “The Flannelgraph Tour.” Here are the dates and places I’ll be visiting (so far). The Flannelgraph Tour May 21 - The Well, Phoenix, AZ June 4 - Vinings Lake Church, Atlanta, GA (a.m.) June 14 - Park Ridge Presbyterian Church, Park Ridge, IL  June 30 -July 2 - Adult VBS, Charlotte, NC July 13-15 - The Wild Goose Fes ..read more