Somewhat recently I shared brunch with a friend, a non-believer. She has known about my Christian faith for some time. We’ve been friends for over 15 years, and I enjoy talking with her on a variety of subjects, some controversial. We can disagree yet not be disagreeable to each other.

Because...

I’m struck by this poem. It was written by Joe Walsh as part of a song he composed titled “County Fair,” found on his album So What.

Found an old puzzle somebody had quit Tried a few pieces and hoped that they fit But they’re going together so slowly It may take me forever to...

I’m sure many readers know the term palindrome—a sequence of letters, words, or numbers that read the same backwards as forwards (from Greek palin again + dromos road, route, course). This is what we find in the photos below and in the word madam, for example.

And I’m sure some...

[See part I]

In the conclusion here I shall more closely explore the three verses leading up to Pontius Pilate’s pithy phrase in 19:22. Some necessary background in John’s Gospel will be provided first.

Events Leading Up to Jesus’ Arrest

With Jesus’ increasing popularity...

In reading any common English translation of John 19:22, one finds Pilate saying, “What I have written, I have written.” This is certainly not incorrect, yet I have a feeling some readers may not quite comprehend the significance of this statement, in part, because they are unaware of...

Word of the day:

lethologica:

The inability to remember a particular word or name

Now, if only I could recall this word next time I can’t remember the word I’m looking for…

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt had been commissioned to compose a work to be premiered at a peace concert in Barcelona on July 1, 2004. The piece, “Da Pacem Domine” (Give Peace, O Lord), was begun two days after the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings, in memoriam of its victims. It...

And as before, I’ve again used the title of a Pedro the Lion song for a blog post. This time the track is from the album The Only Reason I Feel Secure…Is That I Am Validated By My Peers:

It’s weird to think of all the things That have not been keeping up with the times It’s...

[Steve Delamarter, A Scripture Index to Charlesworth’sThe Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2002, Sheffield Academic Press, London, UK, 99 pages]

Essential Complement to Charlesworth’s OTP

To those of a Christian or Jewish persuasion (or those researching either of these belief systems) who...

[See Introduction; John 1:1-2; 1:3-5]

Some believe the prologue was initially a Christian hymn, repurposed by the Gospel writer.⁴⁸ At least a few with this perspective construe 1:6-8 as an interpolation, an addition to the original hymn.⁴⁹ Yet even if the prologue had its genesis as a hymn, with the...

[This is part 6 of a multi-part article. See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.]

Comparison with John 1:1c and 1:14a

Comparing 5:27b with other theologically similar anarthrous PN-CV constructions in John’s Gospel, specifically 1:1c and 1:14a, may reinforce the stance adopted here.

In the verse which begins John’s Gospel the...

[This is part 5 of a multi-part article.  See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.]

Grammatical-Syntactical Analysis of John 5:27b

We now turn specifically to the anarthrous PN-CV construction in 5:27b:

ὅτι υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἐστίν ὅτ&io...

[This is part 4 of a multi-part article.  See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5.]

Immediate and Larger Context of John 5:27b

Chapter 5 of John’s Gospel begins with Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus’ Jewish adversaries took exception to His healing on the Sabbath, and then commanding the now-healed man to...

[This is part 3 of a multi-part article.  See part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5.]

NT Usage of ‘(the) Son of Man’

In the NT the idiom is most often arthrous, with only four instances of anarthrous constructions, with John 5:27b included in the latter. We’ll briefly discuss the use of the articular form of the expression in the...

[This is part 2 of a multi-part article. See part 1, part 3, part 4, part 5.]

‘Son of Man’ in the LXX

In the LXX, the Greek OT, υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου (huios anthrōpou), the words translated into English most often as “son of man” – though some use...

[This is the first part of a multi-part article. See part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.]

This article will argue that, properly understood, John the Gospel writer¹ conveys in John 5:27 that Jesus Christ was given authority by the Father to judge due to His incarnational status of being fully human yet the Son of God. In other words, the Son of God was...

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ A...

This will be a bit unusual in that, just like the title states, this post will consist of random thoughts.  In thinking about writing down the ruminations swirling through my head of late, I was reminded of a term from a psych class I took as a college freshman – flight of ideas.  I’ve been convinced for some time now that...