Posts by Paul Henebury
Jeremiah, the Wooden Literalist
Many Christian interpreters of the Bible will readily call you anti-intellectual, obscurantist, and other nice epithets if you dare to believe the Bible really means what it says. You will be decried as a naive “wooden literalist.” Well, here’s a little something for you to meditate upon before you succumb to the hermeneutical sophisticates who…
Read MoreThe Annunciation in Matthew (1)
Matthew famously begins his Gospel with a stylized genealogy. Placing a genealogy upfront like that bespoke a narrative rooted in the Jewish heritage. Starting your book off with a genealogy hardly seems to us to be a great attention-grabber, but Matthew’s Gospel certainly didn’t suffer because of it (by all accounts Matthew was the most…
Read MoreThe Annunciation in Luke (2)
As one comes to Luke’s second chapter, we hear of the census, but only because it furnishes the reason for Joseph and his family to go south to Bethlehem, the town of David’s birth (Lk 2:4-5), while also giving the location for the extraordinary vision of the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20. That event is also…
Read MoreThe Annunciation in Luke (1)
The annunciation passages in Matthew and Luke are our first introduction to the way the Holy Spirit will pick up the threads of the OT and join them with the new revelation that came with the advent of Jesus Christ. We start with those passages where angels announce the birth of the Savior. I am…
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