(N.T. Wright, Bible Review, August 2001. Reproduced by permission of the author) Little did Paul know how his colorful metaphors for Jesus’ second coming would be misunderstood two millennia later. The American obsession with the second coming of Jesus — especially with distorted interpretations of it — continues unabated. Seen from my side of the […]
The Resurrection of Resurrection
(N. T. Wright, Bible Review, August 2000. Reproduced by permission of the author) Christianity was born into a world where one of its central tenets, the resurrection of the dead, was widely recognized as false–except, of course, by Judaism. Jews believed in resurrection, Greeks believed in immortality. So I was taught many years ago. But […]
The New Inheritance According to Paul
(Originally published in Bible Review, 14.3, June 1998. Reproduced by permission of the author.) The Letter to the Romans re-enacts for all peoples the Israelite Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land — from slavery to freedom. By N.T. Wright Most of the major questions about Paul’s Letter to the Romans relate to Paul’s puzzling […]
Paul, Leader of a Jewish Revolution
(N.T. Wright, Bible Review, December 2000. Reproduced by permission of the author.) Paul’s theology–grounded in Jewish thought and scriptures–propelled him to confront the powers of Rome and the pagan gods that stood behind them. Did Paul think Jesus was the long-promised Davidic Messiah? The first Christian writer seems to say so at the very start […]
The Great Debate
(N.T. Wright, Bible Review. Reproduced by permission of the author.) Jesus doesn’t really matter in Britain, but he clearly does in America. Why? They came, to my surprise, by the hundreds. Serious-minded folks from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco seemed keen to spend an evening listening to two Jesus scholars–Marcus Borg and me–continue in public […]