Tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 were languages the speakers understood

If you’re speaking in tongues and you don’t know what you’re saying, you’re not speaking in tongues. You’re babbling like a baby.

Why is Lazarus in the tomb four days?

I don’t know for sure, but there are some patterns that might fit.

Are women made in the image of God?

Both Genesis 1:26–28 and 5:1–2 are plain in ascribing the image of God to mankind in the plural: male and female. Men alone cannot order the world in a way that fully represents God, and women alone cannot either. Only together can they completely carry his rule into creation by both subduing and filling.

When italics won’t cut it

In which I find a difference of emphasis with Doug Wilson, and proceed to emphasize its importance.

Applying torque to opposing corners of my Bible

Fundamentalists claim that I am mishandling Deuteronomy 22:5 by going beyond its literal meaning. I illustrate how their literalist hermeneutic makes nonsense of not only this passage, but all of human discourse.

Does 1 Corinthians 8:4–6 deny or affirm the existence of other gods?

This is commonly taken as an anchor point for proving that other gods do not exist—but in fact, it is saying the opposite.

What is the kingdom of God? Introduction: a tale of two kingdoms

Why do the gospels represent the good news as being about the “kingdom of God”? What is this kingdom, and how does it relate to us today? In this series I trace the surprising biblical narrative of kingdom, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, starting by showing that John 3:16 is actually about God transforming man’s ruined kingdom into his own eternal one.

What is the kingdom of God? Part 2: the divine council

Israel, like all ancient Near Eastern peoples, conceived of the world as being governed by a cosmic bureaucracy—a bureaucracy the Bible calls the divine council. Prophets were brought into this council when they were commissioned.

Word studies are not exegesis

Or, don’t bother learning the original languages if you don’t yet know how communication works in even your native tongue.

What is hell, and is it biblical? Part 6: argument from statistics

A response to Jacob McMillen and Josiah Pemberton. In this installment, I briefly demolish their “statistical argument” that if hell were in the Bible, it would appear more often.

What is hell, and is it biblical? Part 5: exegetical fumbles

A response to Jacob McMillen and Josiah Pemberton. In this installment, I show the blunders and gymnastics required to so comprehensively misunderstand the obvious “hell passages”.

What is hell, and is it biblical? Part 2: the nature of hell

A response to Jacob McMillen and Josiah Pemberton. In this installment, I illustrate their fundamental misunderstanding of the traditional doctrine of hell.

What is hell, and is it biblical? Part 1: hell and the gospel

A response to Jacob McMillen and Josiah Pemberton. In this installment, I question how their view of hell can square with a gospel that preaches eternal life.

What is being born of water in John 3:5?

Is it baptism, amniotic fluid, or is John tracing a trajectory of Old Testament allusion and physical metaphor?

Annihilationism versus eternal torture

…and why I don’t have anything to do with the Christian Apologetics Alliance.

How would a Hebrew have pictured Genesis 1?

I meant to note down a few interesting thoughts, but I accidentally wrote a commentary.

Does James teach justification by works?

Yes—inasmuch as works are a proper part of the living faith by which we dwell in Jesus, and he in us.

Fallen, sinning, incarcerated angels

A further exchange with Steve Hays in which I defend the Enochian interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4, Jude 6–7 and 2 Peter 2:4–10.

Titans, AE

A further exchange with Steve Hays in which I defend the Enochian interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4.

How many sons of God can dance on the head of a pin?

A response to Steve Hays in which I defend the Enochian interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4, and point out some obvious problems with his objections.

Was Moses the first Asimov?

A commenter accuses me of turning Genesis 6:1–4 into science fiction, and I use the occasion to further demonstrate how the traditional Enochian interpretation is the only one that stands up to testing.

What is Genesis 6:1–4 talking about?

Some hermeneutical and exegetical thoughts defending the Enochian view of the sons of God and the Nephilim.

Biblical reasons to doubt Justin Taylor’s doubts about the creation days being 24-hour periods

Justin Taylor questions the calendar-day interpretation. I question in turn.

Did Aaron’s staff actually turn into a crocodile?

Most translations say it turned into a snake. I think they are right—a crocodile is not in view—given both the inter-textual and socio-religious evidence.

Water and spirit

An exchange demonstrating that it does not, and cannot, refer to baptism.

Thorny problems with Molinism #2: the demonstrable falsehood of its governing intuition

The Molinist’s governing intuition is that people can’t be responsible for choices which (i) do not ultimately originate in their own wills or (ii) where they could not have done otherwise. This intuition is flatly contradicted by Jesus in John 6:44; so Molinism should be rejected as false.

Thorny problems with Molinism #1: doing theology backwards

Molinism as a system begins with human intuitions about responsibility, and then reads these back into God’s word; rather than beginning with God’s word, and conforming our intuitions to it. In this regard it is no different than any other man-made religion.

Wibbling, wuv, and outwage

A response to some fairly representative “progressive” comments about the rod in Proverbs.

Free and cheap resources for understanding the OT in its socio-religious context

A few links for people who aren’t satisfied with “exegesis” that has the serpent in Eden being a snake, or the gods in Psalm 82 being men.

What if the Bible depicts a solid domed sky and a flat earth held up by pillars?

What would this tell us about the Hebrew worldview, and about inerrancy?

Was Jesus a guru? (Part 3)

What if his message got lost in transmission?

Was Jesus a guru? (Part 2)

Is there not some hubris in thinking that, when reading a translation of a text, you have picked up on something which two millennia’s worth of its most adept students failed to notice in the original languages?

Was Jesus a guru? (Part 1)

Some people think so, and they quote Jesus himself in support of the idea.

“No one is righteous”…metaphorically speaking

A polemic against the argument that, in light of the apparently contradicting evidence of our moral intuitions, total depravity should be interpreted metaphorically.

The parable of the wedding feast

An exposition of Matthew 22:1–14: the parable of the wedding feast. This exposition focuses especially on the interpretation of the man with no wedding garment, who is bound and thrown out into the darkness, as a response to a request for such by a Roman Catholic correspondent.

Catholic and Reformed views of God and Scripture: a correspondence

A response to an email from a Roman Catholic correspondent, critiquing his presentation of the doctrine of Scripture and the purposes of God.