There is a parenthetical comment made by John in Chapter 7 that I do not understand:

John 7
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39) Read the rest of this entry »

Becky, my sister-in-law, told me that her daughter asked her point-blank this morning whether she was the tooth fairy. Becky was able to successfully dodge the question, but it got me wondering about the prominent theme of truth and lying in my study of John 7-8 this week. This also touches on some issues I’ve been thinking about in relation to some recent discussion of Abraham 2, and Genesis more generally, where we find heroic characters acting somewhat dubiously from a modern ethical, truth-telling perspective (viz. Abraham lying to Pharoah and Abimelech and Jacob and Rebekah tricking Isaac). These stories give me pause and lead me to reconsider my presuppositions about my understanding of truth, honesty, lying, deception, etc. So here are a few notes on truth that I hope might help in reading John 7-8.

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Reading recently through a very broad (and wonderfully aware) summary of the past five centuries of Old Testament theology, I was struck by how vital the question of supersessionism is for Christian and Jewish interpreters of the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament. I suppose the reason this struck me at all is because Mormonism pays no attention to it, really (though was it Signature Books who published a whole volume dedicated to the interrelations between Mormons and Jews?). And that led me to ask why it is that we pay no attention to this question. I suppose I see several possible reasons. I’d like to summarize them briefly, and then to ask some questions about what role this “ought” to play in Mormon thought–but more especially in the LDS classroom. Read the rest of this entry »

Lesson 16: John 9-10 Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes it rains, and sometimes it pours. And sometimes it pours so hard and long that you’re not sure what to call it. Read the rest of this entry »

Lesson 15: John 7-8 Read the rest of this entry »

Lesson 14: Matthew 18; Luke 10 Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew 18; Luke 10

These two chapters encompass amazingly deep doctrine for those considering themselves as members of God’s kingdom/church on earth.  These teachings come just after the pinnacle experience of the transfiguration of Jesus, Peter, James & John and US, as readers.  What can we learn from this sequence of events? Read the rest of this entry »

I feel a bit irresponsible having focused so much on justice in last week’s lesson when it wasn’t even a term used in the passage. So in an effort to justify the discussion from the previous lesson, I’m going to take up John 7:24, which George R. Beasley-Murry in his Word Biblical Commentary volume translates as follows:

Stop judging according to appearances, but let your judgment ever be just.

Notice that the JST changes “appearances” to “traditions.” That itself is a very interesting change that I’d be interested in hearing thoughts on. But, in accordance with the desire several people expressed in the previous discussion to learn more about Old Testament connotations of the word justice (tsdq), I would like to focus my remarks here on some key Old Testament passages on “judging justly/righteously.”  First, consider Deut 16:18ff: Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been doing some reading on what scripture is and how we understand it Read the rest of this entry »