Falling sideways: why not much changed when Adam and Eve sinned

What happens when Adam and Eve disobey God and eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What are the consequences of their sin? How does it change things? The common assumption is that the “fall” is a catastrophic ontological event that corrupts not only humanity but the whole of creation—with the corollary that redemption entails the “healing” not only of humanity but of the whole of creation. I rather think that this controlling theological construct is overblown.

Read time: 6 minutes

How did Jesus’ disciples imagine that he would “redeem Israel”?

Shortly after the death of Jesus, two from the band of his disciples are met by the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24:13-35). He asks them what they are talking about, and, a little surprised by the ignorance of the fellow, they update him on what has just transpired in Jerusalem. It would be as though someone in the UK had missed the fact that the Queen died last week.

Read time: 5 minutes

Why the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost marked an end, not a beginning

One of the reasons why we routinely miss the point of Peter’s explanation of what happened on the day of Pentecost is, I think, that the canonical arrangement of books encourages us to read Acts as the beginning of something new rather than as a direct continuation of what went before. The New Testament opens with four Gospels telling the story of the life of Jesus up to his death and resurrection.

Read time: 8 minutes

Jamie Davies on the apocalyptic Paul: the J. Louis Martyn school

In the second chapter of The Apocalyptic Paul: Retrospect and Prospect, Jamie Davies introduces what is effectively a “school” of modern interpreters who have built on J. Louis Martyn’s account of Paul’s apocalyptic thought: Martinus de Boer, Leander Keck, Alexandra Brown, Beverly Gaventa, Douglas Campbell, Susan Eastman, and Lisa Bowens. I will take a similar approach to the previous post, summarising and passing judgment on the work of these scholars as Davies presents it.

Read time: 11 minutes

Jamie Davies on the apocalyptic Paul: from Weiss to Martyn

Jamie Davies’ book The Apocalyptic Paul: Retrospect and Prospect comes in two parts: a look back down the long road that has led to attempts to assimilate the “apocalyptic Paul” into systematic theologies, and a look forward to see where that road might take us next. I’m not sure how far I’ll get but I will try at least to assess the retrospective journey as Davies describes it in his first three chapters. It strikes me as a fair account, and if anyone is looking for a reliable introduction to the subject, this would be a good place to start.

Read time: 13 minutes

The narrative vocabulary of rape in the Old Testament and the counter-example of Amnon and Tamar

I asked in the previous post about blaming Bathsheba, “If it was a rape, why isn’t it presented as a rape?” James McGrath asks to the contrary, if we call Amnon’s assault of Tamar “rape,” why do we not apply the same category to David’s sexual encounter with Bathsheba? “Where in the story is Bathsheba complicit? Where is she willing? Where does she give consent?”

Read time: 3 minutes