New Testament

About fifteen or twenty years ago the Magic Eye craze captivated me. I can remember strolling through the local mall and seeing entire displays of these intriguing pictures. These computer-generated pictures (known as autostereograms) revealed a hidden three-dimensional picture if you stared just the right way. I can still think of receiving a book with Bible story versions of these hidden icons, which I enjoyed deeply. What caught my attention was the number of people who couldn’t see the…

The Book of Romans is one of the most influencial and historically significant books of the New Testament. It is often creditied with being instrumental in the converison of Saint Augustine. When it was placed in the Bible at the Councel of Nicen it was given the position of first in order of Paul's epistles. The epistle was was penned by Paul to a Christian congregation in Rome. What is interesting is that unlike any of Paul's other epistles it was not written to a congregation that he…

The New Testament integrates four gospels, each having been written during different time periods and by different minds. When different thought processes and personalities converge into one Bible, it is indisputable that there will be a degree of variation in the presentation of Jesus across the four gospels. The Gospel of Mark portrayed Jesus’ Messiahship through his suffering as a reparation for the sins of his followers. On the other hand, the Gospel of Matthew represented Jesus as the new…

faith. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion founded on the teaching, person and life of Jesus of Nazareth, as interpreted from the New Testament. It is a religion of salvation considering Jesus Christ as the Messiah announced by the prophets of the Old Testament; Faith in the resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of Christianity because it signifies the beginning of a new humanity liberated from evil. The first Christian communities were born in the first century in Judea and in the major…

Colin Kruse makes an interesting point on this matter. He says, “For his gospel to have credibility with those with a background in the synagogue, Paul had to show that Abraham was in fact justified by faith, not works.” The term “boast” Paul chose signifies the “act of taking pride in something or that which constitutes a source of pride.” Paul’s case in point is that no human act, no matter how pious could render man a boasting position before God. In the following verses, Paul tackles…

Luke 13.28-29. What is meant by the kingdom of God? The “kingdom of God” is a reoccurring theme in the New Testament, but there is a lack of explanation as to what it means. Jesus explains “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets” will be in the kingdom of God, and then people from around the world “will eat in the kingdom” (Luke 13.28-29). However, there is no mention of what the kingdom is and whether it is has already occurred or is yet to come; this has led to various theories…

Living in today’s society, people know that this is a falling world. At one point of time at a certain young age, everything was easy and so innocent. As the years progress and age increases, things get harder and people have much more experience throughout life. These two kinds of perspectives our shown in William Blake’s poems, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In Songs of Innocence, the readers sees poems lived by a child and how innocent life is as a child. On the contrary in Songs…

James specifically designates his writing to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (ESV, James 1:1). This can be taken as a figurative representation of the scattered Gentile church, however, as stated by Robert H. Gundry in A Survey of the New Testament, it is more likely to Jewish Christians living outside Palestine” (Gundry 518). This is defended by the overarching theme of Jewishness throughout the letter. Specific examples of this can be found in the language employed, James 5:4 refers to…

1. Galilee a. Galilee is a northern Israel region that Jesus called home for approximately 30 years of his life and it is also the primary setting for the Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke which record Jesus’ ministry within that area (Nelson, 1897, p.1). 2. Messianic Secret a. The Messianic Secret is a theological motif addressed by William Wrede which concludes that Mark solved the issue church’s lack of written accounts of Jesus’ “messiahship” because the historical Jesus never claimed to be…

there are several scripture passages that conflict with one another, thus making it difficult to decipher the true role of men versus women in the church. Although the church emphasizes the equality of men and women, it must also reflect the New Testament teaching that men and women are to fill different responsibilities in the church. In order to understand the role of women in the church, we must examine the role of men in the church seeing as though they…