Scripture’s characteristic word from heaven to earth is “Do not be afraid.” When an angel announces this to a human, the human is usually “in for it.” To understand Mary’s response,...

Romans 16 contains scholarly puzzles. First, Paul knows twenty-nine people in a church he hasn't visited. (Have you a similar conundrum in your Christmas card list?) Greetings to friends, final instructions,...

Elizabeth blesses Mary who “believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Luke 1:45). Mary’s response is now a great liturgical canticle, the...

Luke is Christianity’s first historian. Scholars note his use of Greco-Roman history’s literary models. We too use cultural forms to convey Christian content. It’s good evangelism: Something new in something familiar....

I love puns, especially those based on a double entendre, a word with more than one meaning (one often risqué!). These exchanges among David, Nathan, and God are based on a...

At this juncture, David is a big winner: king of Israel and Judah, conqueror of the mighty Philistines, with the captured city of Jerusalem his capital. Living in “a house of...

This week’s Bible readings seem haphazard: David and Nathan (not that story), blessings on Roman Christians, Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary, and Mary’s song. And the Mary stories aren’t even in chronological...

The religious leaders ask John the same question three times. “Who are you?” They say it over and over again. It’s clear that the priests and Levites sent by Jewish rulers...

These two verses serve as a crescendo to the verses of Isaiah we have examined earlier this week. Isaiah 61 tells of God’s mighty work among the people and the justice...

“It was like we had been dreaming” (ceb). Sit with this phrase for a moment. We see dreams throughout the Bible, most prominently in Joseph’s interaction with Pharaoh, but they are...