A few days ago, I had a radio interview with Kevin Boling, pastor of Mountain Bridge Bible Fellowship and host of the radio program “Knowing the Truth.” In that interview for “Knowing the Truth,” Pastor Boling and I discussed a book that I edited in 2005, Whatever Happened to Truth? Contributing authors included Al Mohler, J. P. Moreland, and Kevin Vanhoozer. The book opens with my article, “’What is Truth?’ Pilate’s Question in its Johannine and Larger Biblical Context.” Al Mohler contributed the essay, “Truth and Contemporary Culture.” The chapter entitled �... [read more]

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From the patristic period until today, John’s Gospel has served as a major source for the church’s knowledge, doctrine, and worship of the triune God. Among all New Testament documents the Fourth Gospel provides not only the most raw material for the doctrine of the Trinity, but also the most highly developed patterns of reflection on this material—particularly patterns tht seek to account in some way for the distinct person hood and divinity of Father, Son and Spirit without compromising the unity of God. While there have been recent, fine studies on aspects of John’s doctrine of G... [read more]

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As the angels told the women at the empty tomb, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee?” (Luke 24:5–6). The four New Testament Gospels record at least eleven resurrection appearances to Jesus to hundreds of individuals over a period of several weeks. None of the Gospels have all the appearances, which requires that we reconstruct the probable sequence of these appearances. The following chart will appear in my forthcoming New Testament Introduction due out with B & H sometime in... [read more]

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A few weeks ago I blogged on the question whether or not Jesus was born on December 25. To continue the conversation, here is what I consider to be the best article on the subject, by Paul Maier, Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University. The piece originally appeared in Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies presented to Jack Finegan, ed. J. Vardaman (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1989), and is posted here by permission of the author. Maier writes, “In 1968 I published an article that offered fresh evidence in support of Fr... [read more]

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This blog was originally written to serve as a dictionary entry but was not included. Monogamy (from Gr. monos, “one,” and gamos, “marriage”) refers to marriage to one marriage partner. Monogamy is firmly embedded in the Old Testament teaching regarding God’s plan for marriage. According to Gen. 2:24, “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” This clearly stipulates a heterosexual, monogamous relationship as the norm for God’s people across both covenant periods. After the Fall, it took only six generations unti... [read more]

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This blog was originally written to serve as a dictionary entry but was not included. Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) was born January 14, 1875 at Kaysersberg in Upper Alsace, Germany, the son of a Lutheran pastor. In 1893, he began his studies at the University of Strassburg, taking classes in New Testament with the well-known German scholar Heinrich Julius Holtzmann. From 1902 until 1912, he served in Strassburg as a lecturer in New Testament, as pastor of a church, and as director of the Thomasstift. Apart from being a New Testament scholar, Schweitzer also earned a medical doctorate and... [read more]

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The Christmas season is over, but the debate regarding Jesus’ probable date of birth is never out of date. While many have disparaged the traditional date of December 25, J. Stormer, PCC [Pensacola Christian College] Update (Winter 1996), cited by G. E. Veith, “Evidence December 25 is the right day,” online at http://www.geneveith.com/evidence-december-25-is-the-right-day_184, has recently argued for December 25 as a possible date of Jesus’ birth on the basis of the course of temple duties for the clan of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5, 8; cf. 1 Chron 24:10). ... [read more]

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As Mike Huckabee said during one of the ubiquitous television debates recently, “Jesus was way too smart to run for political office.” Isn’t that the truth. One certainly sympathizes with the candidates having to reinvent themselves about once every few days to appeal to different constituencies of voters. Indeed, Jesus didn’t run for political office. In fact, he said that his kingdom was not of this world. This doesn’t mean he was so otherworldly that he was of no earthly good. To the contrary, he was well aware of people’s anxieties and preoccupation with existential necessit... [read more]

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In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and... [read more]

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Books in Bible and theology continue to pour from the presses at an ever-accelerating pace. Surely, of the making of books there is no end … (in fact, I’m working on a few myself right now). In case anyone is interested, here is my “completely objective” list of the “Best of 2007,” ranked in order of importance. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions regarding any additions or subtractions. 1. Greg Beale and D. A. Carson, eds. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Baker. In the interest of full disclosure, I contributed “John” to this volume,... [read more]

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