The late Eugene Peterson translated The Message directly from the original Greek without reference to other English versions of the New Testament in hope that he could capture the rhythms, idioms and subtleties of the original language for a modern audience. That’s a laudable goal, and if Peterson’s efforts help new Bible readers engage with the text and older readers hear it in a fresh way, then they will not have gone to waste. We use The Message from time to time in our weekly Bible study, and it almost never fails to provoke a reaction. When Peterson is “on”, he can be brilliant, and even when he’s off, he tends to get the conversation started with a bang.
“God is interested in our willing participation in his plan for our lives, not in micro-managing helpless automatons.” — Tom
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Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Monday, March 04, 2024
Anonymous Asks (292)
“Why are there so many Christian interpretations?”
Knowledge is fundamentally divisive. The moment any of us determines to “get to the bottom” of this or that subject, he begins to depart from the popular narrative about it. One possibility is that he gets labeled a conspiracy theorist and marginalized by society. Another is that he becomes an expert and people start turning to him for advice.
Any exposure to increased information, true or false, creates divisions.
Friday, February 02, 2024
Too Hot to Handle: Thinking God’s Thoughts After Him
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
The German mathematician Johannes Kepler once responded to a question about his work in astronomy by saying “I was merely thinking God’s thoughts after him.” If that’s true in math or science or any search for “small-t truth”, it’s most applicable when we come to the study of God’s word. Explaining “Big-T Truth” for our fellow believers so they may grow up in Christ is one of the most important tasks ever given to men, and the challenge to do it right is described by Peter in the words “whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God”.
Tom: IC, we were just emailing each other about a sequential exposition series you’ve been sharing with other men in your own local church. Describe for our readers the small problem you’ve encountered and have needed to work at overcoming in the process.
Wednesday, April 06, 2022
On the Supposed Misuse of the Old Testament
Online commentators argue that the apostle Paul misuses the Old Testament.
Some of these are garden-variety cranks, determined to prove all English versions of the Bible inaccurate. They insist reading the Jewish Tanakh is the only way to go. There’s really no placating people like that. Others set Paul against Jesus, maintaining that only the words of Christ really matter, and that the writings of the apostles are unreliable, inferior and downright wrong. Still others, like Pete Enns, object particularly to Paul, arguing that he read the Old Testament out of context, failing to respect what its authors intended to communicate.
How does the average Christian reply to such accusations?
Friday, February 25, 2022
Too Hot to Handle: How Do You Read It? (1)
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
We’ve done maybe seventy of these exchanges now on various subjects, Immanuel Can. But what we’ve never done is a post on commonly misunderstood scriptures. Everybody does those. I’m feeling left out.
So why don’t we just do it like the Lord Jesus did with the lawyer and ask the questions, “What is written? How do you read it?” That’s a pretty solid precedent to work from.
Tom: I’ll start. Let me lob you a softball here, IC.
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Mining the Minors: Amos (33)
Prophetic language in scripture is always more difficult to interpret from a distance.
This uncertainty is especially common when figurative language — a regular feature of the prophetic word — is in play. When a prophecy is fulfilled in a generation or less, its original audience has little difficulty unpacking a nicely turned figure of speech and applying it to their own situation. On the other hand, a 2,700 year distance from the events about which the prophet has spoken or written severely limits the modern reader’s ability to dogmatize about specifics.
The historical record just isn’t that comprehensive, and the culture and language barriers to understanding the text as its original readers understood it increase with every passing generation.
Wednesday, August 04, 2021
Bible Study 05 — Comparison [Part 5]
Another instalment in the re-presentation of our 2013-2014 series about studying the Bible using methods deduced from the Bible itself. The series introduction can be found here.
The first Bible study tool we are discussing is comparison, specifically comparison of words and phrases in the original language.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Untwisting God’s Words
Tertius once told me about something that happened to him many years ago, when he was a young Christian. He had started to study the Bible with a friend who had a particular mainline church denominational background.
One day he received an angry letter from his friend’s priest, who was upset about the idea that two lay people were attempting to read and understand the word of God without his “professional” help.
“No prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation,” declared the priest, quoting part of 2 Peter 1:20. From this, he expected Tertius to see that it was just wrong for a person not approved and trained by church authorities to dare to read and understand for himself.
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
The Wrong Word
Sometimes we’ve just plain got the wrong word in our Bibles.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I know translators are highly skilled people. In almost every case when it was first translated it was the right word. It was clearly understood by its audience. It was the best English equivalent in its generation for a particular Greek or Hebrew expression.
But languages evolve. Meanings morph. Sometimes they even reverse themselves. Words that worked in one generation no longer transmit the intended message without causing confusion, eroding our ability to grasp what the writers of the word of God were trying to tell us. More than a few beloved expressions hang on well past their expiry dates.
My candidate of choice? The word “grace”.
Thursday, May 06, 2021
Getting Reading Right
So I got talking with a guy the other day.
Those of you who know me know I’ve made my career among secular people. Philosophy being my thing, I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of different sorts of people — many very far from Christian. But in this case, I was talking to a youngish Christian who had been pulled sideways by reading too much of the Unitarians and various Gnostic sects before getting his grounding in scripture. He’s got shaken about the general reliability of scripture, the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and a variety of other issues, and he’s working his way through them.
I asked him what he thought was the touchstone of truth. He’d already expressed doubts about large sections of scripture, so I wanted to know what he was relying on to show him what was reliable and what wasn’t.
Sunday, March 21, 2021
When the Holy Spirit is Silent
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Magination Run Wild
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Failure to Choose is a Choice Too
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Too Clever For Their Own Good
Far too often the mere existence of a biblical record of how fallible, sinful men behave is taken as evidence of what God prefers.
That’s a mistake, whether it is done by unbelievers attacking the character of God and
the morality of his instructions, or by believers looking to the frequently
We can and should learn moral lessons from history, of course, but it is foolish to go beyond what is actually written. When we do, we are often being too clever for our own good.
Tuesday, November 03, 2020
A Structural Analysis of Psalm 107
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Hyperbole and Analogy
- How was this psalm understood by its original audience?
- To what other circumstances might this psalm legitimately apply?
- Where is Christ in this psalm; and, conversely, where is he not?
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Reports and Opinion Pieces
Friday, December 28, 2018
Too Hot to Handle: All Greek If You Want It to Be
Saturday, November 10, 2018
How Not to Crash and Burn (32)
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Semi-Random Musings (9)
Thursday, September 06, 2018
Untwisting God’s Words
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Novelty for Novelty’s Sake
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Getting Reading Right
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Wednesday, August 01, 2018
On the Supposed Misuse of the Old Testament
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
On the Mount (34)
Tuesday, June 05, 2018
Two Verses, Three Interpretations
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Magination Run Wild
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Truth Out of Balance
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Words, Words, Words
How much of truth remains?
If I only understood them
while my lips pronounced them
Would not my life be changed?”
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Semi-Random Musings (4)
Monday, November 27, 2017
Legitimate Usage
Monday, October 30, 2017
New and/or Reactionary
Sunday, October 01, 2017
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Private Interpretation
Friday, August 25, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: The Christian View of Premarital Sex [Part 1]
Monday, July 31, 2017
The Wrong Word
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Libels and Labels
Saturday, June 03, 2017
Recommend-a-blog (24)
No, really. This is a useful tool, if only as a window into the mindset of active disbelievers who are expending an awful lot of time and energy trying to turn others from faith in Christ.
Tuesday, April 04, 2017
The Race Metaphor
Monday, April 03, 2017
Quote of the Day (31)
It helps to know what we’re looking at. |
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Playing Word Games
Thursday, January 26, 2017
People Whom One Cannot Instruct
Perhaps if we dropped this on their heads ... |