Associate Professor of New Testament, Tyndale Seminary
There are quite a few Greek dictionaries (or lexica) floating around, but many of them are not particularly useful. Several of the dictionaries still being sold are unreliable. Others are little more than lists of a few common English translations for each Greek word. They do not provide a balanced definition or a sense of…
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A friend of mine recently asked me why, in Scripture, Peter is forgiven by Jesus but Judas isn’t. Peter’s denial of Jesus during the trial scene is a betrayal, just like Judas’ conspiracy with the priestly aristocracy. Does Peter just “get a pass” because he is part of Jesus’ inner circle, chosen to be a…
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A friend asked recently whether there is biblical evidence for the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. This is the idea that between heaven and hell there is a third place some people find themselves after death. Purgatory is said to be a place for purification. The soul suffers there, but not endlessly. Her sufferings burn…
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This article was first published in the e-journal Missio Dei. That journal’s web-site has unfortunately been taken down temporarily while it recovers from a malware attack. In the meantime, I’m making this piece available here. Of Grant and Judy We live, in the greater Toronto area, at the centre of the world’s most diverse meeting…
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Here’s another of my talks from St. Paul’s-on-the-Hill Anglican Church back in February. In this one I was starting off a series on John’s Gospel by giving a quick overview of the book and its message.
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Every term, not long before final papers are due, my students in the NT survey course are thrown a curve ball. We come to the letter to the Ephesians and the so-called Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus). Most of my students discover for the first time how many scholars doubt these letters…
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For many Christian students, the first exposure to academic biblical studies comes as a shock. Our faith was formed and nurtured with a simple view of the Bible. It seemed clear and we could trust it. We want to dig deeper, so we enroll in a course at seminary or university. But instead of just…
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The Problem of the Law One of the greatest tensions in the New Testament surrounds the Old Testament law, also called torah. On the one hand we read Matthew’s Gospel and hear Jesus make the solemn declaration: “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of…
Read MoreTraditional Christianity has always taught that God is a Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But this can often seem like an abstract idea that does not have much to do with my life. Here are my reflections on how the Trinity can be experienced, originally shared at St. Paul’s-on-the-Hill Anglican Church in June 2017.
Read MoreMany of my blog posts begin life as answers to my students’ questions. This one is no different. A student asked a good question about how we know Mark wasn’t written much earlier than AD 65 or so. Here is my (lightly edited) reply. The starting point for dating Mark is that our earliest church…
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Ian W. Scott 