HEBREWS is a letter that was written like a sermon. No author’s name is given, though some have attributed it to Paul, others to the gifted orator Apollos (Acts 18:24), for its blend of Hebrew and Old Testament substance with Greek oratorical style. We don’t know the location of the audience, but it is obvious that they were Jewish Christians, some years or decades into their faith, when the initial signs and wonders that accompanied the entry of the Gospel into their Read more …

II TIMOTHY 1-4 contains a great many personal details about Paul’s imprisonment (Most likely Rome) toward the end of his life. Evidence of preoccupation over what will survive him abound, such as his warnings about apostasy and persecution in later times. And yet there are a few remaining details, even about some mundane things, like Read more …

II THESSALONIANS gives us insight into the apocalyptic teachings of the apostles and the first generations of Christians. By “apocalyptic” is meant that which concerns the end of this age and the breaking-in of heavenly and eternal realities. Not an add-on to the gospel of salvation, it is in some ways the engine, for “the kingdom of God is at hand.” The crisis among the Thessalonian Christians seems to have been Read more …

COLOSSIANS recounts one side of a common conflict among Christians, especially the first generation of believers from a pagan, primal context. Imagine the strangeness and shock value of a monotheistic and prophetic faith in a Creator God to a pantheistic world in which many gods and spirits are mingled into the natural order, in a chain of being spanning from earth to heaven. Imagine that this chain is fluid; the links do not stay in place but move around and blend, so that rocks might be deities, a crow might be your deceased uncle, the gods might be your neighbors, or more likely, the royal family, so that even humans span a range of matter-to-spirit, animal-to-divine, on this magical, mysterious chain of being, with the king and your tribe likely considered to be closer to heaven than your enemies and slaves. In such an insecure and mysterious, shape-shifting world Read more …

EPHESIANS 2-6 contains much that the modern world finds inspiring, such as the vision of unity through diversity, of inclusion and reconciliation, and the egalitarian empowerment of all members of the body of Christ in chapters 2-4. But modern readers struggle with what appear at first glance to be oppressive and hierarchical injunctions in chapters 5-6, about both slavery and family, in particular, the words in 5:22, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.” Read more …