Associate Professor of New Testament, Tyndale Seminary
The Greek tenses can really be confusing at first. The key, really, is to understand that they don’t mean what English tenses mean. Both the present and the aorist aren’t really indicating the time of the action. They’re indicating the way the speaker is viewing the action, the speaker’s focus in looking at the action.…
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The key point with the middle voice in Greek is that we don’t have anything equivalent in English. English lumps together actions that are active in Greek with actions that are middle in Greek and generally expresses those actions with the English active voice. This is why we find the middle so hard to wrap…
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…
Read MoreSometimes we can start thinking we know the limits of God’s mercy, who can and cannot be shown God’s grace. The story of Jesus’ conversation with the Syrophoenician woman reminds us that sometimes God can break his own rules.
Read MoreHave you ever felt like your life is too ordinary to mean very much? Here are the thoughts I shared at St. Paul’s-on-the-Hill Anglican Church back in October 2017.
Read MoreHere on this blog I’ve provided some lists of good commentaries, journals, and reference works. But how do you find these and other good sources? In particular, how do you go beyond the listed volumes to find other relevant books and journal articles? There are three basic tools to use. (Note that these tips focus…
Read MoreI recently stumbled across a very useful site for students working on the Gospels or on the Jesus tradition. The Five Gospels Parallels, by John W. Marshall at the University of Toronto, presents the gospel texts (in English) in parallel vertical columns. The text is divided into pericopes, and for each one Marshall provides links…
Read MoreI gave this sermon at St. Paul’s-on-the-Hill Anglican church in Pickering, Ontario on October 2, 2016. I hope some of you find it useful. The text for my sermon (from the week’s lectionary) was Luke 17:5-10: 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 The Lord replied, “If you had…
Read MoreHere is my sermon from this past Sunday, based on Acts 16:9-15.
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