In the first installment I set out the traditional Greco-Roman letter format and looked at the ldquo Judases rdquo and ldquo Jameses rdquo in the New Testament nbsp In the second installment I weighed the arguments on authorship and decided the best evidence points in the direction of the Ju
John W. Martens
John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.
Posted inThe Good Word
The Letter of Jude Online Commentary (7)
In the first installment I set out the traditional Greco-Roman letter format and looked at the ldquo Judases rdquo and ldquo Jameses rdquo in the New Testament nbsp In the second installment I weighed the arguments on authorship and decided the best evidence points in the direction of the Ju
Posted inThe Good Word
The Letter of Jude Online Commentary (6)
In the first installment I set out the traditional Greco-Roman letter format and looked at the ldquo Judases rdquo and ldquo Jameses rdquo in the New Testament There seemed to be only one good option for whom the Judas Jude to whom this letter is attributed could be the Judas Jude who is the
Posted inThe Word
God’s Gift for All
The Psalmist prays to God ldquo May your way be known upon earth among all nations your salvation rdquo But how will this come to pass Throughout the Old Testament there are clues that someday in some way God rsquo s covenant will be expanded to welcome not just the descendants of Abraham
Posted inThe Good Word
The Letter of Jude Online Commentary (5)
In the first installment I set out the traditional Greco-Roman letter format and looked at the ldquo Judases rdquo and ldquo Jameses rdquo in the New Testament There seemed to be only one good option for whom the Judas Jude to whom this letter is attributed could be the Judas Jude who is the
Posted inThe Good Word
The Letter of Jude Online Commentary (4)
In the first installment I set out the traditional Greco-Roman letter format and looked at the ldquo Judases rdquo and ldquo Jameses rdquo in the New Testament There seemed to be only one good option for whom the Judas Jude to whom this letter is attributed could be the Judas Jude who is the
Posted inThe Good Word
The Name of Easter
As Easter approached I began to see a number of Ishtar equals Easter memes roll across my Facebook feed as friends or acquaintances of mine with pagan leanings decided to spill the hidden truth on the origins of Easter Indeed it turns out that a Facebook page from The Richard Dawkins Foundation f
Posted inThe Word
Fish for Breakfast
It took the apostles some time to come to terms with the reality of Jesus raised from the dead but once they accepted it they had to face the challenges of day-to-day life in the context of their newly aroused faith It was this tension between the mundane reality of ordinary life and the glorious
Posted inThe Word
The Great Multitude
It is easy to forget how few Christians there were when the church began Acts 1 15 says there were 120 people gathered together after Pentecost Acts also narrates the mass conversions of many people sometimes in the thousands but Robert M Grant said that ldquo one must always remember that fig