In Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6 Jesus refers to “faith as a grain of mustard” – or ” faith as a mustard seed” and in both cases, Jesus describes great results which follow on from such faith. Most commentators… Read More ›
Matthew
What is the Meaning of Jesus’ Words, “Do Not Cast Your Pearls Before Swine”?
“Do not give to dogs what is holy, and do not cast your pearls before swine” (Matt. 7:6a) These words from the Sermon on the Mount are puzzling! Jesus has just commanded the disciples not to judge, and yet here… Read More ›
The Tamar and Ruth Narratives Considered Intertextually
The account in Genesis Ch. 38 of the events leading up to and including the birth of Perez to Tamar and Judah has many intertextual connections with the events leading up to and including the birth of Obed to Ruth and Boaz… Read More ›
Is There a Pattern to the “Anotations” in Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ?
Most of Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ (Matt. 1:2-16) consists of statements of the form “X begat Y”. But there are some additions – called annotations in the literature. In this article, I suggest that these annotations are carefully located in the genealogical… Read More ›
Who is the Rider on the White Horse in Revelation 6:2?
The identity of the Rider on the white horse in Rev. 6:2 has, for almost all of the history of the church, not been a matter of doubt: He is the Lord Jesus Christ, or alternatively the Holy Spirit or… Read More ›
Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ: how can we get the “3 groups of 14 generations each” described in Matt. 1:17?
We have been looking at Matthew’s genealogy of Christ, and have been doing so in terms of two alternative understandings of the term “generation” as used in Matt. 1:17 (primarily the first of these). They are 1) the (controversial!) meaning… Read More ›
Judah and Jechonias and Their Respective Brethren
We have been looking at Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ in Matt. 1:1-17 and in this post I want to put forward a suggestion about Matthew’s inclusion of two, somewhat surprising, references (verse 2 and 11) to “brethren” – those of Judah and… Read More ›
The Birth of Jesus in Matt. 1:18-25 – Part 5
This is the final chiastic structure that I will be attempting for this passage! It is the one that was referred to as “II” in Part 4 of this series, and is an analysis of the structure of the entire… Read More ›
The Birth of Jesus in Matthew 1:18-25 – Part 4
We have been looking at Matt. 1-18-25, and I have been attempting to identify its structural components. I have provisionally divided the passage into four sections, 18– 20a, 20b-21a, 21b-23 and 24-25. I have numbered these 1-4 respectively. The first,… Read More ›
The Birth of Jesus in Matthew 1:18-25 (Part 3)
In the previous post, we looked at the chiastic structure of the first half of Matt. 1:18-25. In this post, I want to suggest a possible structural analysis for the second half—that is from verses 21b –25. We actually divided… Read More ›
