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Benjamin the Scribe

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Latter-day Saint

2015-12-05T23:02:26-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

NT Gospel Doctrine Lesson 44: 1-3 John

Last updated on: December 5, 2015 at 11:02 pm By Ben Spackman

1 John opens reminiscent of both the Gospel of John (thematically) and Luke/Acts (in contrast). That is, the vocabulary and ideas resemble John (the Word of life made visible, eternal life). But the point-of-view contrasts Luke. Whereas Luke says he had to investigate and talk to witness, because he wasn’t a firsthand eyewitness himself, 1Jo 1:1 and 1Jo 1:3 strongly imply the opposite for the author (authors?) of 1 John. Note the plural “we” there, present from the first verses onwards. Is this a... Read more

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2018-03-09T13:18:44-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 43: 1-2 Peter, Jude

Last updated on: March 9, 2018 at 1:18 pm By Ben Spackman

These three epistles are usually grouped with James and the three epistles of John, together called the Catholic Epistles. Greek katholikos means “universal”, and so they are sometimes called the General Epistles, since they’re written universally, to everyone, in general. Once again, there’s not really an overarching theme, so we’re going to play thematic wack-a-mole. Find something significant you like and expand on it. 1 Peter The author of 1Pe is writing “through” Silvanus (i.e. Silas), according to 1Pe 5:12. Is Silvanus scribe,... Read more

Gospel Doctrine

New Testament

2015-11-16T13:25:20-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 42- James (updated)

Last updated on: November 16, 2015 at 1:25 pm By Ben Spackman

I assume James gets his own Gospel Doctrine lesson because… Joseph Smith and James 1:5? Not sure, really. But James is “the most socially conscious writing in the New Testament”(Brown, Introduction to the New Testament, 725), so it has that going for it. Like Timothy and Titus, this epistle lacks a Big Picture woven throughout. Like Timothy and Titus, it contains very practical advice. Like Timothy and Titus, it doesn’t get a lot of attention. The Letter of James is among the most neglected books... Read more

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2015-11-12T22:57:28-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 41- 1&2 Timothy, Titus

Last updated on: November 12, 2015 at 10:57 pm By Ben Spackman

These letters are known as the Pastoral Letters. (Pastor came into English from Latin pastor, “shepherd.”) They are addressed not to congregations, but to individuals who are themselves ministering to congregations. Full of counsel, less of doctrine. And here, like Hebrews, most scholars are convinced that Paul didn’t write them. Why? The following is summarized from the conservative Protestant Word Biblical Commentary volume on the Pastorals by eminent Greek teacher William Mounce. (See his blog here.) There are several problems. A Historical Problem– These don’t... Read more

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2015-11-08T16:15:54-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 40: Colossians and Philippians, but mostly Philemon

Last updated on: November 8, 2015 at 4:15 pm By Ben Spackman

I’ve got a new feature here. Bible verses now have a NRSV pop-up when you mouse over them. Try it here, with Genesis 1:1. That means that I’ll now be repeating the book abbreviation or name when making references, necessary for it to work. Quotations that include references will now by modified slightly to include the book name so it will work there too. This functionality is an implementation of Reftagger, from Logos. Alas, it’s only with the Bible, so... Read more

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2015-10-28T15:19:32-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 39: Ephesians (updated)

Last updated on: October 28, 2015 at 3:19 pm By Ben Spackman

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2015-10-22T13:43:27-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 38: Acts 21-28

Last updated on: October 22, 2015 at 1:43 pm By Ben Spackman

First of all, I’ve made a Facebook page for Benjamin the Scribe. I’m not sure what one does with such pages, but feel free to become a fan there. Second, I’m hunkering down to finish my Genesis book, in preparation for something new and big, that I hope to be able to announce in December, if all goes well. Fingers crossed. Third, a bunch of the New Testament books by N.T. Wright are for sale on Kindle right now, as part of... Read more

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2015-10-09T20:56:34-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

SMPT Conference at BYU: Alma 32

Last updated on: October 9, 2015 at 8:56 pm By Ben Spackman

I’ll be speaking tomorrow morning on BYU campus, as part of the conference of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology. The full schedule is here. My title is “Faith and Perfect Knowledge: Parsing Alma and the Hebrew Lexicon.” I look at an Israelite conception of “faith” which has strong overtones of certainty as a background of Alma 32. Does Alma share this conception, that faith borders on certainty? If not, what does Alma mean by “faith” and what is... Read more

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2015-09-27T19:04:15-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 37: Hebrews

Last updated on: September 27, 2015 at 7:04 pm By Ben Spackman

Hebrews is fun and different. Note that it comes at the end of Paul’s letters, because way way back in the day, they were uncertain if it was one of Paul’s letters. Authorship– With very rare exceptions, few think Paul wrote it anymore, although LDS tradition has been resilient. LDS have generally tended to take the position that Paul was its author, based on the fact that Joseph Smith consistently referred to the author of the epistle as Paul. This assumes, however,... Read more

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2019-07-28T12:35:46-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 36: Romans

Last updated on: July 28, 2019 at 12:35 pm By Ben Spackman

Paul’s letter to Romans “has been the most studied of the apostle’s writings — indisputably Paul’s theological chef d’œuvre….With only slight exaggeration, one could claim that debates over the main ideas in Romans split Western Christianity…. [Nevertheless], for those who may have time to study in greater depth only one Pauline letter, Romans would not be my recommendation, even though it is the most important.” So says eminent Catholic New Testament scholar Raymond Brown in his Introduction to the New Testament.... Read more

Gospel Doctrine

New Testament

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