Paul s Hymn to Christ the most common title given to Philippians 2 6-11 is one of the most popular passages in the Pauline corpus with good reason and one of his most scrutinized passages as well To my mind it encapsulates Jesus Incarnation and Passion more powerfully than any other short
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.
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Hope Does Not Disappoint?
Paul states in Romans 5 5 the second reading for the Third Sunday in Lent that hope does not disappoint Really Hope does not disappoint It seems to me that everyone at some time or another has had their hopes dashed or named a situation hopeless While it might be true that looking back
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Epiphany
For me as a student of the Greco-Roman era the word Epiphany has certain connotations attached to it which are hard to shake and they all revolve around one man Antiochus IV Epiphanes As told in 1 Maccabees 1-2 and 2 Maccabees 5-7 Antiochus attempted to annihilate Judaism which initially he pr
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The Virgin Birth
In Matthew 1 20 the Gospel author cites a prophecy from Isaiah 7 14 concerning a 8220 virgin 8221 Gk parthenos who would give birth to a child Matthew seems to be citing the Septuagint LXX a 3rd century B C translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek which also has parthenos Why
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The Peaceable Kingdom
As the passages from Isaiah 11 1-10 and Matthew 3 1-12 illustrate we await the coming of the peaceable Kingdom the fulfillment of the promises of God the establishment of the Kingdom that shall not end And we await it in the context of history otherwise known as our ordinary lives Christianity
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The Extra Ordinary
In last week s second reading Paul held himself up as a model for imitation to the Thessalonians 2 Thess 3 7-12 For Paul imitation is neither the sincerest form of flattery nor a cheap copy but a means to model oneself in the life of Christ Paul holds himself up as a model of imitation st
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The Ordinary
I found myself wondering how 2 Thessalonians 3 7-12 fit with Malachi 3 19-20a often 4 1-2a in English translations and Luke 21 5-19 Apart from thematic fit I wondered how appealing Paul s call for diligence in daily tasks could have been and I am assuming Pauline authorship of 2 Thessaloni
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Who Wrote Paul’s Epistles III
If you d like to read my earlier posts on this subject simply click on my name above The most substantial arguments against Pauline authorship are concerned with issues of increased institutionalization in the Church and questions regarding supposed differences in theology from Paul s genuin
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Who Wrote Paul’s Epistles II
Before digging in you may want to read my first post on this subject The language of the Pastoral Epistles is the most difficult argument to handle apart from the Greek original and I would argue the most boring of arguments in any language so I will deal with this only in general terms Schola
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Who Wrote Paul’s Epistles?
The second reading for the upcoming Sunday is again from 2 Timothy Here are three verses from the reading Beloved Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead a descendant of David such is my gospel for which I am suffering even to the point of chains like a criminal But the word of God is