Finding Meaning in the Pentateuch

An interesting interview from Christianity Today online

THEOLOGY IN THE NEWS Finding Meaning in the Pentateuch Powerful endorsements bolster John Sailhamer's new tome on the Bible's first five books. Interview by Collin Hansen

Buying Soft Copies of Bible Commentary

Logos bible software was having a 12 days of Christmas sales, offer one sales per day. There are some good bargains here.

Prices and coupon codes are good through December 31st, 2009.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
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Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary
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Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible
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Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon
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Word Biblical Commentary (WBC 59 Vols.)
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The Drama of Scripture
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Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, 2nd ed.
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The Essential IVP Reference Collection Version 3
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Jesus in Context: Background Readings for Gospel Study
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Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
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An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible (5 Vols.)
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1 year subscription to
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I have my eye on the Word Biblical Commentary (56 vols) for some time. My problem is that I have most of the hard copies. So is it good stewardship to buy the soft copies for my computer.

What do you think? Shall I buy or not?

CNN on Bible Seizure in Malaysia

Bibles seized as Malaysia minorities fear fundamentalism

By Saeed Ahmed, CNN

October 29, 2009 -- Updated 1254 GMT (2054 HKT)

Non-Muslims in Malaysia fear that Islamism is seeping into the moderate nation's fabric.

(CNN) -- Authorities in Malaysia have seized more than 20,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as "Allah," Christian leaders said Thursday.

The seizures have fed fears among minority groups, which see signs of encroaching Islamic fundamentalism in the predominantly Muslim but multi-racial country.

"There is a growing sense of Islamic assertion, yes," said the Rev. Hermen Shastri, general-secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia. "There is some concern."

The Bibles were written in the country's official language, Malay -- in which the word for God is "Allah," as it is in Arabic.

However, Malaysia's government says the word is exclusive to Islam.

Its use in Christian publications is likely to confuse Muslims and draw them to Christianity, the government says. So it has banned use of the word in Christian literature.

read more

15,000 bibles detained by Malaysian Government

In the Religious Liberty Watch blog, nkm notes that 15,000 Bibles are detained by the Malaysian authorities and gives his opinion.

15000 Bibles Detained by Malaysian Government this Past Year

By nkw

It is bad enough that Malaysian government officials continue to seize and detain the Al Kitab (Malay Bible) at their whims and fancies. It is worse as the government is supposed to have a gentlemen’s agreement dating from the mid 1980s with the leaders of the Malaysian Church that allows the Al Kitab to be used within church premises.

read more

Book of Revelation

Elaine Pagels examines the Book of Revelation and asks questions about its origin and importance. Who wrote the Book of Revelation, when, and why? What other "books of revelation"--Jewish and Christian--were written at the time but left out of the Bible? What accounts for the enduring appeal of this book during the past 2000 years, and even today?

Black Hawk Down and Bible Study

In the September–October issue of Bible Study Magazine, Chaplain (Major) Jeff Struecker shares how his study of the Bible not only helped him during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu (featured in the book and movie Black Hawk Down), but how Scripture influences every aspect of his life as a soldier. Read the article now.

Major Struecker speaks from experience, including combat in Operation Just Cause in Panama, Operation Iris Gold in Kuwait, Operation Gothic Serpent in Mogadishu, Somalia, and multiple tours in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. His awards for actions in these imminent danger zones include the Southwest Asia Service Medal (1 Service Star), Kuwaiti Liberation Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (2nd award), National Defense Service Medal and the Bronze Star Medal (with “V” Device for valor, 3rd award). He has received other medals as recognition for his service in the United States Army. In addition to these awards and others, Struecker took first place in the David L. Grange Best Ranger competition in 1996.

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Chris Webb on Lectio Divina

Chris Webb, the President of Renovare writes about lectio divina in his Heart-to-Heart Fall 2008 Pastoral Letter.

The roots of lectio divina lie back in the earliest days of the Christian church, especially in the teaching of the desert fathers and mothers and in the Benedictine tradition. The classic description of lectio was written sometime later, though, by a Carthusian prior called Guigo II who lived in the French Alps during the twelfth century. He writes about his thinking in a simple, unaffected way:

One day when I was busy working with my hands I began to think about our spiritual work, and all at once four stages in spiritual exercise came into my mind: reading (lectio), meditating (meditatio), prayer (oratio) and contemplation (contemplatio) . . . Reading is the careful study of the Scriptures, concentrating all one’s powers on it. Meditation is the busy application of the mind to seek with the help of one’s own reason for knowledge of inner truth. Prayer is the heart’s devoted turning to God to drive away evil and obtain what is good. Contemplation is when the mind is in some sort lifted up to God and held above itself, so that it tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness (Scala Claustralium, chapter II).

Guigo is describing a way of reading Scripture which is quite different to the approach many of us have learned. This is not a “study” of Scripture, an attempt to draw out from the Bible eternal principles which we then teach others or apply in our own lives—coming to the Bible as though it were a user’s manual for the Christian life. Guigo assumes that, when Paul writes that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16), he is speaking less about issues of truth and infallibility, and more about the infusion of divine life itself into the text. So, when practicing lectio, we do not come looking for doctrines to be learned—we come looking for a Presence to be encountered. The Bible is not so much the stone tablets recording the law, as it is the burning bush from which God speaks . . . here and now.

Lectio divina begins, of course, with reading. A careful, attentive, prayerful, and open-hearted reading of the Bible. This takes time. We cannot read Scripture the way we read the New York Times or an article on Wikipedia. The Bible is not susceptible to skimming, to summarizing, to speed-reading; there is a fundamental difference between Google and the gospel. Scripture is deep, rich, complex, and multi-layered. It speaks through nuances and details. It yields its fruit slowly and gently. This means we need to find the right environment to practice lectio with prayerful attention. We can, of course, read the Bible anywhere: on a train, in a mall, over a coffee in Starbucks. But some places are more conducive to lectio than others; a good length of time spent reading in uninterrupted quiet is essential. For some, that is hard to achieve. Try not to fret about this: take what time you can, where you can. A good half hour once a week is better than a frantic five minutes every day.

Reading leads to meditation (meditatio). Christians of past generations had a very rich idea of what the inspiration of Scripture might mean: for them, it meant that the consistent character and purposes of God were reflected in every part of the Bible, so each passage of the Bible spoke to all other passages. We see this in Paul’s letters: the lives of Sarah and Hagar are figures of the two covenants (Gal. 4:12); the Hebrews drank water from the rock, and that rock was really Christ (1 Cor. 10:4); the veil over the glory of Moses’ face is the veil over the hearts of those who do not receive Christ (2 Cor. 3:15). Meditation is the process of slow reflection on Scripture that allows these perpetual echoes to be heard, so that over time the various voices and stories of the Bible integrate into the one great narrative of God and creation. By reflecting on Scripture, we allow the Spirit to speak through the words of the many human authors; we take inspiration seriously.

After meditation comes prayer, oratio. But this is not the place to lay down the Bible and take up our intercession lists. When we speak of prayer in the process of lectio, we are speaking of allowing the text to draw us beyond the page into the Presence. As we listen for the voice of the Spirit in Scripture, so we respond to the Spirit present within us. We transform our reading into conversation, sharing with God our responses to the text, the concerns it raises, the memories it provokes, the people it reminds us about. In turn, we listen for God’s direct and present voice replying, bringing the text alive in our current experience. We allow the living and active word to speak into our lives, to challenge and provoke us, to comfort and console us.

And finally we come to rest in contemplation—perhaps the least understood movement in lectio divina. We often use the word “contemplation” to mean thinking; perhaps, then, contemplation is yet more reflecting on the words of the passage? No. In the Christian tradition, contemplatio is becoming still in the presence of God, neither speaking nor necessarily being spoken to, but simply waiting attentively and lovingly on God. Think of the way old friends can allow conversation to drift into companionable silence. When our relationship is deep and rich enough, we do not need to talk all the time: it is enough just to be together. This is contemplatio. We have allowed Scripture not only to increase our knowledge of God, but also to entice us into deeper relationship with God.

read more

picture: fickr: Idiay

Chris Webb on Lectio Divina

Chris Webb, the President of Renovare writes about lectio divina in his Heart-to-Heart Fall 2008 Pastoral Letter.

The roots of lectio divina lie back in the earliest days of the Christian church, especially in the teaching of the desert fathers and mothers and in the Benedictine tradition. The classic description of lectio was written sometime later, though, by a Carthusian prior called Guigo II who lived in the French Alps during the twelfth century. He writes about his thinking in a simple, unaffected way:

One day when I was busy working with my hands I began to think about our spiritual work, and all at once four stages in spiritual exercise came into my mind: reading (lectio), meditating (meditatio), prayer (oratio) and contemplation (contemplatio) . . . Reading is the careful study of the Scriptures, concentrating all one’s powers on it. Meditation is the busy application of the mind to seek with the help of one’s own reason for knowledge of inner truth. Prayer is the heart’s devoted turning to God to drive away evil and obtain what is good. Contemplation is when the mind is in some sort lifted up to God and held above itself, so that it tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness (Scala Claustralium, chapter II).

Guigo is describing a way of reading Scripture which is quite different to the approach many of us have learned. This is not a “study” of Scripture, an attempt to draw out from the Bible eternal principles which we then teach others or apply in our own lives—coming to the Bible as though it were a user’s manual for the Christian life. Guigo assumes that, when Paul writes that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16), he is speaking less about issues of truth and infallibility, and more about the infusion of divine life itself into the text. So, when practicing lectio, we do not come looking for doctrines to be learned—we come looking for a Presence to be encountered. The Bible is not so much the stone tablets recording the law, as it is the burning bush from which God speaks . . . here and now.

Lectio divina begins, of course, with reading. A careful, attentive, prayerful, and open-hearted reading of the Bible. This takes time. We cannot read Scripture the way we read the New York Times or an article on Wikipedia. The Bible is not susceptible to skimming, to summarizing, to speed-reading; there is a fundamental difference between Google and the gospel. Scripture is deep, rich, complex, and multi-layered. It speaks through nuances and details. It yields its fruit slowly and gently. This means we need to find the right environment to practice lectio with prayerful attention. We can, of course, read the Bible anywhere: on a train, in a mall, over a coffee in Starbucks. But some places are more conducive to lectio than others; a good length of time spent reading in uninterrupted quiet is essential. For some, that is hard to achieve. Try not to fret about this: take what time you can, where you can. A good half hour once a week is better than a frantic five minutes every day.

Reading leads to meditation (meditatio). Christians of past generations had a very rich idea of what the inspiration of Scripture might mean: for them, it meant that the consistent character and purposes of God were reflected in every part of the Bible, so each passage of the Bible spoke to all other passages. We see this in Paul’s letters: the lives of Sarah and Hagar are figures of the two covenants (Gal. 4:12); the Hebrews drank water from the rock, and that rock was really Christ (1 Cor. 10:4); the veil over the glory of Moses’ face is the veil over the hearts of those who do not receive Christ (2 Cor. 3:15). Meditation is the process of slow reflection on Scripture that allows these perpetual echoes to be heard, so that over time the various voices and stories of the Bible integrate into the one great narrative of God and creation. By reflecting on Scripture, we allow the Spirit to speak through the words of the many human authors; we take inspiration seriously.

After meditation comes prayer, oratio. But this is not the place to lay down the Bible and take up our intercession lists. When we speak of prayer in the process of lectio, we are speaking of allowing the text to draw us beyond the page into the Presence. As we listen for the voice of the Spirit in Scripture, so we respond to the Spirit present within us. We transform our reading into conversation, sharing with God our responses to the text, the concerns it raises, the memories it provokes, the people it reminds us about. In turn, we listen for God’s direct and present voice replying, bringing the text alive in our current experience. We allow the living and active word to speak into our lives, to challenge and provoke us, to comfort and console us.

And finally we come to rest in contemplation—perhaps the least understood movement in lectio divina. We often use the word “contemplation” to mean thinking; perhaps, then, contemplation is yet more reflecting on the words of the passage? No. In the Christian tradition, contemplatio is becoming still in the presence of God, neither speaking nor necessarily being spoken to, but simply waiting attentively and lovingly on God. Think of the way old friends can allow conversation to drift into companionable silence. When our relationship is deep and rich enough, we do not need to talk all the time: it is enough just to be together. This is contemplatio. We have allowed Scripture not only to increase our knowledge of God, but also to entice us into deeper relationship with God.

read more

picture: fickr: Idiay

Reading the Bible Backward

My review of Edward Hindson's thesis on Isaiah's Immanuel has elicited some interesting comments. One is that whether Matthew is quoting Isaiah 7:14 correctly.

Dennis Bratcher, Old Testament scholar of CRI/Voice Institute writes,

"We are accustomed to reading the Bible backwards. That is, we have tended to assume that the New Testament provides all the clues we need to understand the Old Testament. As a result, we tend to read the Old Testament in light of what we understand about the New Testament. However, most of the time we are not really even reading the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. We are actually reading the Old Testament in light of much later highly developed doctrines and systematic theology seen through the eyes of 21st century Western perspectives. We tend not to take seriously the deep roots that most of the New Testament has in the thought world, symbolism, and theology of the Old Testament."

read more in his article on Immanuel in Isaiah and Matthew and Isaiah 7:14: Translation Issues

For a Jewish view of Isaiah 7:14, see this article from Messiah Truth which gives a different perspective on the whole issue.

.

Reading the Bible Backward

My review of Edward Hindson's thesis on Isaiah's Immanuel has elicited some interesting comments. One is that whether Matthew is quoting Isaiah 7:14 correctly.

Dennis Bratcher, Old Testament scholar of CRI/Voice Institute writes,

"We are accustomed to reading the Bible backwards. That is, we have tended to assume that the New Testament provides all the clues we need to understand the Old Testament. As a result, we tend to read the Old Testament in light of what we understand about the New Testament. However, most of the time we are not really even reading the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. We are actually reading the Old Testament in light of much later highly developed doctrines and systematic theology seen through the eyes of 21st century Western perspectives. We tend not to take seriously the deep roots that most of the New Testament has in the thought world, symbolism, and theology of the Old Testament."

read more in his article on Immanuel in Isaiah and Matthew and Isaiah 7:14: Translation Issues

For a Jewish view of Isaiah 7:14, see this article from Messiah Truth which gives a different perspective on the whole issue.

.

Abortion in the Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight posted a interesting discussion on abortion in his blog, The Jesus Creed. I find it so interesting that I am reposting it here in full.

In my new book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, one of my major points is that the Church has learned to read the Bible by discernment instead of treating everything as law. I got a letter recently about abortion, and I’d like to sketch — inadequately — the basics of how discernment works when it comes to the abortion issue.

Dear Scot,
Okay, here it is: I’m passionately committed to having all my theologyand practice be based on Scripture, interpreted as the original authorswould have intended it to be. To the best of my ability to determinethat, of course. So having assessed some of my other evangelical idolsin light of what the whole of Scripture actually says, I thought as athinking pro-life Christian I should do the same with abortion.

I believe the pro-life side has framed the debate properly. This isfirst and foremost about when the fetus becomes a “person” (a moreaccurate description than saying “when life begins”). We can argue itlegally or scientifically, but I needed to start with Scripture. I wasalways taught the first step in exegesis is gathering the evidence. Soto build a theology of the beginning of human life, I needed to gatherall the passages that apply to that issue, properly interpreted incontext. I haven’t gotten far into it, but here’s sort of a summary ofmy cursory research so far:
The Bible is ambiguous.

There it is. I said it. To clarify, the Bible says life:
- begins before birth (Ps. 51:5; Ps. 139:13; Luke 1:41)- is found in the blood (Lev. 17:11,14; Deut. 12:23; Ezek. 3:18)–canthere be life where there is no blood? At what point can we say thefetus has its own blood distinct from the mother’s?- begins/ends with the breath (Gen. 1:30; 2:7; 6:17; 7:15,22); 7 timesin Scripture “breathed his/her last” means “he died”; of course inHebrew & Greek the same word is used for breath & spirit–can there belife without breath?- In the Law, a person is not “counted” until one month old! (Lev. 27:6;7x in Num. 3; Num. 18:16; 26:62)
Thanks.

Dear Passionate,
First here is what you say and it is very important for me to begin right here: “Okay, here it is: I’m passionately committed to having all my theology and practice be based on Scripture, interpreted as the original authors would have intended it to be.”
I’m with you and our method is fine until we come to something, like abortion or prolonging life indefinitely with drugs or machines or heart transplants or nuclear war, that clearly isn’t discussed in the Bible because it was a document of its times (the point of my book Blue Parakeet). The Bible doesn’t address your issue because the biblical times didn’t have that kind of sophistication about this kind of issue.

When this happens, we are driven to make discernments the best that we can.
That means we don’t have “certain” clarity but have “faith” discernment.
That means we have to work with other Christians who share our general orientations.
That leads to a discernment in light of Scripture rather than a judgment based on something clearly stated in Scripture.

Abortion is one of those: I confess that those texts you quote don’t really interest me in this decision because those texts are not talking about “when does a fetus/etc become a human, an Eikon of God” but they are dealing with other things. Since these authors had no idea how humans formed, their words are metaphorical to some degree.

What we (mostly Evangelical) have discerned is based on one very big and very clear point made in the Bible: humans are Eikons of God, that is, they are made in God’s Image. This makes humans special beyond what any of us can fathom.

They are Eikons once they are conceived (RCs push this back to the sperm and egg more than to just conception so they are against birth control practices) because this is the “process” God has created for us to become co-creators with God in this wonderful world. We are fruitful and multiply, that is we extend God’s creation, when we reproduce. So, the very act of reproduction is part of the Eikon-forming process.

Eikons are sacred. This is the point of Genesis 1-2. Eikons are “like God.”
Abortion is therefore an act of irretrievable violence against the sacredness of Eikons whom God has made.

The Bible doesn’t say “Abortion is wrong.” The Bible gives us the raw materials to discern how to live out the gospel in our day.

There is much more to be said, and scientists have important insights in these very matters, but what I’ve sketched is an approach through Scripture.

Blessings,
Scot

Abortion in the Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight posted a interesting discussion on abortion in his blog, The Jesus Creed. I find it so interesting that I am reposting it here in full.

In my new book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, one of my major points is that the Church has learned to read the Bible by discernment instead of treating everything as law. I got a letter recently about abortion, and I’d like to sketch — inadequately — the basics of how discernment works when it comes to the abortion issue.

Dear Scot,
Okay, here it is: I’m passionately committed to having all my theologyand practice be based on Scripture, interpreted as the original authorswould have intended it to be. To the best of my ability to determinethat, of course. So having assessed some of my other evangelical idolsin light of what the whole of Scripture actually says, I thought as athinking pro-life Christian I should do the same with abortion.

I believe the pro-life side has framed the debate properly. This isfirst and foremost about when the fetus becomes a “person” (a moreaccurate description than saying “when life begins”). We can argue itlegally or scientifically, but I needed to start with Scripture. I wasalways taught the first step in exegesis is gathering the evidence. Soto build a theology of the beginning of human life, I needed to gatherall the passages that apply to that issue, properly interpreted incontext. I haven’t gotten far into it, but here’s sort of a summary ofmy cursory research so far:
The Bible is ambiguous.

There it is. I said it. To clarify, the Bible says life:
- begins before birth (Ps. 51:5; Ps. 139:13; Luke 1:41)- is found in the blood (Lev. 17:11,14; Deut. 12:23; Ezek. 3:18)–canthere be life where there is no blood? At what point can we say thefetus has its own blood distinct from the mother’s?- begins/ends with the breath (Gen. 1:30; 2:7; 6:17; 7:15,22); 7 timesin Scripture “breathed his/her last” means “he died”; of course inHebrew & Greek the same word is used for breath & spirit–can there belife without breath?- In the Law, a person is not “counted” until one month old! (Lev. 27:6;7x in Num. 3; Num. 18:16; 26:62)
Thanks.

Dear Passionate,
First here is what you say and it is very important for me to begin right here: “Okay, here it is: I’m passionately committed to having all my theology and practice be based on Scripture, interpreted as the original authors would have intended it to be.”
I’m with you and our method is fine until we come to something, like abortion or prolonging life indefinitely with drugs or machines or heart transplants or nuclear war, that clearly isn’t discussed in the Bible because it was a document of its times (the point of my book Blue Parakeet). The Bible doesn’t address your issue because the biblical times didn’t have that kind of sophistication about this kind of issue.

When this happens, we are driven to make discernments the best that we can.
That means we don’t have “certain” clarity but have “faith” discernment.
That means we have to work with other Christians who share our general orientations.
That leads to a discernment in light of Scripture rather than a judgment based on something clearly stated in Scripture.

Abortion is one of those: I confess that those texts you quote don’t really interest me in this decision because those texts are not talking about “when does a fetus/etc become a human, an Eikon of God” but they are dealing with other things. Since these authors had no idea how humans formed, their words are metaphorical to some degree.

What we (mostly Evangelical) have discerned is based on one very big and very clear point made in the Bible: humans are Eikons of God, that is, they are made in God’s Image. This makes humans special beyond what any of us can fathom.

They are Eikons once they are conceived (RCs push this back to the sperm and egg more than to just conception so they are against birth control practices) because this is the “process” God has created for us to become co-creators with God in this wonderful world. We are fruitful and multiply, that is we extend God’s creation, when we reproduce. So, the very act of reproduction is part of the Eikon-forming process.

Eikons are sacred. This is the point of Genesis 1-2. Eikons are “like God.”
Abortion is therefore an act of irretrievable violence against the sacredness of Eikons whom God has made.

The Bible doesn’t say “Abortion is wrong.” The Bible gives us the raw materials to discern how to live out the gospel in our day.

There is much more to be said, and scientists have important insights in these very matters, but what I’ve sketched is an approach through Scripture.

Blessings,
Scot

Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina

Introduction to Lectio Divina

Introduction to Lectio Divina

Archaeology and the Old Testament

Archaeology and the reliability of the Old Testament

This article by Dr. John Sailhamer, Professor of Old Testament
and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina was published in CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006) , a publication of Gordon-Cornell Theological Seminary


Biblical narratives as a whole cannot always be treated as eyewitness accounts. Much of the book of Kings, for example, records events several hundred years earlier than the time of its composition. That does not mean that these narratives are spun out of thin air. Here is where evangelicals may serve a valuable (if unappreciated) purpose in the larger scheme of things. They, as few others, are prepared to take these biblical texts at face value and ask how they fit into what historians and archaeologists tell us happened.

read more

.

Archaeology and the Old Testament

Archaeology and the reliability of the Old Testament

This article by Dr. John Sailhamer, Professor of Old Testament
and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina was published in CONTACT (Winter 2005/2006) , a publication of Gordon-Cornell Theological Seminary


Biblical narratives as a whole cannot always be treated as eyewitness accounts. Much of the book of Kings, for example, records events several hundred years earlier than the time of its composition. That does not mean that these narratives are spun out of thin air. Here is where evangelicals may serve a valuable (if unappreciated) purpose in the larger scheme of things. They, as few others, are prepared to take these biblical texts at face value and ask how they fit into what historians and archaeologists tell us happened.

read more

.

Parenting in the Bible

July (Web-Only) 2008, Vol. 52. Christianity Today online.

Parents and Prodigals
As my daughter leaves for college, packing up her belongings, she is still a stranger to me.
Virginia Stem Owens posted 7/29/2008 08:35AM


This article was originally published in the June 23, 1978 issue of Christianity Today.

This is the year my first child will leave home: Over the past 18 years I have often had cause to lament the fact that Jesus never had any children. The area where I have needed the most guidance and the clearest pattern of behavior has been a great grey mist through which move the bewildering and sometimes contradictory figures of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, David and Absalom. My own mother's favorites were Hannah and Samuel, but then he left home at the relatively uncomplicated age of 3, not 18. From the very first, however, something had gone awry in human families. Cain was a prodigal who went off to a far country but never returned.

If the Old Testament is full of the all-too-human failings of families, the New Testament supplies the opposite problem. We see few families and scarcely any children. We know Peter had a mother-in-law, so he must have been married. Several of the disciples were close kin and at least two had a pushy mother. Philip had three daughters whose spinsterhood was presumably alleviated by their gifts of prophecy. Timothy's mother and grandmother were obviously virtuous women, but where was his father?

read more

There are a few examples of good mothers but can anyone tell me of an example of a good father in the Bible?

note: The father in the parable of the prodigal son doesn't count as he doesn't exist.

.

Parenting in the Bible

July (Web-Only) 2008, Vol. 52. Christianity Today online.

Parents and Prodigals
As my daughter leaves for college, packing up her belongings, she is still a stranger to me.
Virginia Stem Owens posted 7/29/2008 08:35AM


This article was originally published in the June 23, 1978 issue of Christianity Today.

This is the year my first child will leave home: Over the past 18 years I have often had cause to lament the fact that Jesus never had any children. The area where I have needed the most guidance and the clearest pattern of behavior has been a great grey mist through which move the bewildering and sometimes contradictory figures of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, David and Absalom. My own mother's favorites were Hannah and Samuel, but then he left home at the relatively uncomplicated age of 3, not 18. From the very first, however, something had gone awry in human families. Cain was a prodigal who went off to a far country but never returned.

If the Old Testament is full of the all-too-human failings of families, the New Testament supplies the opposite problem. We see few families and scarcely any children. We know Peter had a mother-in-law, so he must have been married. Several of the disciples were close kin and at least two had a pushy mother. Philip had three daughters whose spinsterhood was presumably alleviated by their gifts of prophecy. Timothy's mother and grandmother were obviously virtuous women, but where was his father?

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There are a few examples of good mothers but can anyone tell me of an example of a good father in the Bible?

note: The father in the parable of the prodigal son doesn't count as he doesn't exist.

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